


The Skirmish over Mirial (unrated version)

by DragonWithAScarf



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/F, No the events of chapter thirteen and twelve isnt my kink, Non-Consensual Bondage, Not Canon Compliant, Regular curse words - not Star Wars kriffing bullshit, Throwaway OC characters, Unrated Version, fr tho, shoutout to AOR for that last tag bc it's funny asf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:41:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 21
Words: 34,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23543290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonWithAScarf/pseuds/DragonWithAScarf
Summary: Anakin Skywalker is introduced to Ahsoka Tano under tricky circumstances - while on a mission to find out why Jedi Master Luminara Unduli has betrayed the Republic(This is the original version, cleaner version is members only bc idk about AO3's policy on double posting)
Relationships: Adi Gallia/Luminara Unduli, Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 13
Kudos: 18





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A retelling of Anakin and Ahsoka's meeting, over an alternate Mirial instead of Christophsis. My first attempt at writing fiction longer than an essay, so hopefully no big plot holes in this story
> 
> Some things tweaked from canon include the duration of the Clone Wars, Luminara being a dual wielder, Adi Gallia being a rulebreaker and Barriss being a near-Knight
> 
> Also, let's play a game, how many references to movies/vidya/memes can you spot?

**“It is a dark time for the Galaxy. The Clone**

**Wars has been raging for nearly 400 days**

**by now. The death toll mounts every day as the**

**Republic and Separatists clamour for every scrap**

**of natural and people resources at any cost**

**Neutral systems struggle in this backdrop, the**

**war sparing absolutely no one in the Galaxy. At**

**best they faced recessions. At worst, invasion**

**from both major factions at once and near**

**annihilation of their very way of life**

**On the long-independent single system of Mirial,**

**trouble looms over them. Both sides eye her**

**resource-rich colony planets, military assets**

**and populated home worlds, and the Republic**

**is determined to make the first move...**

The small vessel dropped out of hyperspace. It was painted in an ugly and monotonous grey scheme, weathered from a hundred years of operation. Unmarked, it would have perfectly blended in with all the passenger ferries and freight liners that occupied this busy part of the Outer Rim on any given day. Unfortunately, this was no ordinary day

Day 14th of the second year into the Clone Wars. Nowhere in the Galaxy were immune to the effects of the first great war since the Ruusan Reformation, almost a millennial prior. A thousand years of peace and stability shattered with the Battle of Geonosis about a year prior. Some would have insisted the Republic were the instigators, others would point fingers at the Confederacy of Independent Systems. At this juncture however, with the death toll by the billions, no one really gave a damn how the war started, only how the war could end, and more importantly, when

Neutral systems were not spared. At worst, they got thrown a war they did not want to fight in over things like strategic location or natural resources that both sides sought. And at best, they saw economic recessions as trade and confidence began to dwindle

Such were the twin Mirialan home planets of Rokkalia and Vaylaan. Independent from the Republic from its beginnings 25000 years ago, Mirial had a long and proud history of being the financial stronghold of the Outer Rim, with a rich history amongst her 11 ethnicities and 31 nations. The nationalistic Mirialans were not one to give in even in the face of overwhelming threats, from the first clashes against the Republic 400 years ago that created the United Nations of Mirial, to the Trade Federation blockade 20 years prior that ended with a slaughter. Over three million troops died fighting in the skies above before Mirial gave concessions to the T.F., much to the distain of her people. Then the Battle of Naboo happened, and the Mirialans were obviously the next system to rise up against the corporate bullies, sparking off the entire secessionist movement in the first place

How ironic then, that both Naboo and Mirial were neutral solar systems in a crisis that birthed from them

And unfortunately, the Republic intended to put an end to that. Thirty billion Mirialans, their somewhat good staging location for Outer Rim missions, their powerful Navy and their five mineral-rich colony planets falling into the hands of the C.I.S.? This fear had loomed over the Galactic Senate for far too long. No, Mirial could be trusted to defend herself, and the C.I.S. could _absolutely not_ be trusted to keep their fingers off what was effectively a windfall

The Republic would have to strike first

Subtly

And so onboard the grey ferry, a black-ops unit from the Grand Army of the Republic approached Rokkalia, the more political influential of the two planets, and the one that liked the Republic less. It was a simple yet devious plan: the unit would provide an escort to a group of Republic-friendly generals from the Mirialan Defence Forces, as they made a move on the Parliament building in Rokkalia’s Capital District. A coup d'état was to be launched once the generals got into the Parliament and ousted the civilian building body, and the GAR black ops team would provide muscle in case shit hit the fan, and liaison with the rest of the GAR occupying forces once Rokkalia and subsequently, the less Republic-unfriendly Vaylaan were forced to ally with the Republic

The ferry had no trouble getting past Rokkalian Customs. The two Jedi and the ARC troopers had the necessary documents to pass through the planetary shield gate like anyone would, less the usual twenty-minute queue. Courtesy of the strangled trade that saw the lowest number of cargo vessels in over two centuries

They descended down to their mission


	2. Unwanted guests

A ping lit up the holoprojector communicator in the Jedi High Council’s chambers. The rest of the Jedi Masters turned to the vacant chair, as Adi Gallia visualised onto her seat

“Good afternoon, we’ve arrived on Rokkalia, in the Mirial system. I’m looking at about another ten minutes before we touch down in the Capital District. So far, no issues.”

“Very well, Master Gallia,” Plo Koon responded. “Our plan stays on course then. Liaison with those friendly generals once they give the secret signal that you arranged with them. From there, I anticipate about half an hour before you reach the Parliament building. I don’t suppose keeping a low profile would be an issue, would it?”

“Hard to say, we can’t pretend we’re tourists, not at this time. But splitting up has its own risks too, so we are sticking to one big group”

“Do the MDF generals recommend traveling in the open,” Agen Kolar queried. “Or going through alleyways?”

“First one. There will still be a crowd to blend into. We just can’t use the tourists excuse if we get stopped”

“Oh, are you gonna liaison with Master Unduli too?” Agen added. “She would be the best asset here, but you haven’t told us yet if she’s joining you lot”

“I pinged her yesterday, she said she might be able to join us, if she isn’t held up.” Adi paused a second before adding, “I do think I should add on that she sounded bored when I pinged her”

“Luminara? Bored?” Mace Windu questioned. “Maybe it’s the year of isolation from all of us, you think? But if she doesn’t join in, then stick to the original plan”

“Hmm, careful you must be, Master Gallia,” Yoda croaked as he switched the subject back to the mission. “Taking the government of Mirial, of utmost importance it is. Any potential ambushes, you must be prepared for. But losing your cover, a great setback it would be”

“The Force will guide us through, Master Yoda,” Adi reassured. “Anyone else has anything to chip in?”

“Yeah,” Mace quipped. “May the Force be with you”

“And may the Force be with us”

The holoprojector was cut off

“Prepared for the occupation, young Skywalker is?” Yoda pondered aloud

“I’m more concerned whether that youngling you’re sending to him is, Master.” Mace replied

“I’m more concerned you sent a youngling that is as reckless as he is to be his Padawan,” Shaak Ti added. “The one youngling that successfully tilted me”

“C’mon, you know young Tano needs a self-reflection to shake her up. She wasn’t like this under my tutelage, but I can see how that changed, and how it could change back. Those two must form a strong but necessary bond. One that will allow them to learn from each other,” Plo replied

“A bond leads to an attachment. And an attachment that broken, must be, eventually. Learn to break an attachment, those two must learn,” Yoda interjected as he rested his chin on his hands, continuing his pondering into the events that were unfolding

\---

The grey ferry touched down on a landing lot just outside of a luxurious hotel. On a normal day, a diverse crowd of both natives and tourists would be seen roaming around, but on this day, only a sea of various greenish hues could be seen. Occasionally, scattered group of alien expats and business travellers could be seen, but native Mirialans were nearly all they could see. And those expats would be the perfect blend-in for the black-ops unit

Adi Gallia, dressed in a dull red summer dress, with grey leggings and a cardigan to hide her lightsabre, was first out of the vessel. Behind her was her cousin and fellow Tholothian Jedi Master, Stass Allie, dressed in a loose-fitting blouse and a pair of black trousers, keeping her sabre out of sight too. They took in the environment around them, checking for any potential unwanted attention…nothing

“Clear,” the younger Jedi Master mumbled, barely loud enough for the ARC troopers behind to step out. They were dressed in various smart-casual attire and carried either briefcases or backpacks. All of which contained their weapons

“General Allie,” CT-5555, nicknamed Fives, started off. “Seen them yet?”

“Nope. Looks like we’ll be waiting a bi…hey!”

Out from a glass door on the ground floor, several Mirialan men poured out. They were all adjusting their sunglasses in unison, the signal they had arranged

Adi responded by tugging at the hem of her dress

The two groups started across the parking tarmac to each other

“Ms Hillis, we would like to thank you and your company for your willingness to do business with us at this time”

“Sometimes, you just gotta take the risks. Cheesy, I know”

A final secret exchange between the two to establish their identities

No words were spoken as the MDF generals began to start off in the general direction of the Parliament building, the Republic unit following behind

\---

The Mirialan Ground Forces recce team scurried from building to building, stealthily skipping across narrow alleys that cut the rooftops of the various department stores

For the last half hour, they had been stalking their prey like the wild beasts that once roamed the very urban landscape they were inside. Below them were the Republic troops, the two Jedi and the treasonous generals, all casually walking below as if they were on a business deal. Of course, the next best disguise when “We are tourists” wouldn’t work

One of the MGF scouts reached for his earpiece

“Tangos headed towards G’dol Plaza on Fipia Avenue Two. Prepare the police droids and the ambush team, and also get ready to clear the crowd”

“Roger that”

The scouts halted. They had done their job, spotting an opening where the enemy could be surrounded and ambushed with minimal civilian interference. Obviously to avoid casualties, but just as importantly, to minimise onlookers who would spread the news that the Republic was trying to mess around with Mirial, and potentially start churning popular support for the CIS. Mirial had her hands full with Republic scum, they didn’t need CIS scum around either


	3. She won't betray you

_Fourteen hours earlier_

The communicator started ringing. Luminara was jolted out of her meditation

Again, Adi? She thought to herself as she sauntered over to her desk

“Hey, good evening, Rara…it’s evening, right?” Adi casually chirped over

“It’s morning”

“I believed that despite my missed calls, the High Council has already briefed you on the status of the mission”

“Yeah…they did”

“It would help if you could join in with this mission. You’ve been on very friendly terms with both governments this past year, and you would be of great help to the mission if you could negotiate with the Parliament to step down”

“Err, yeah, good idea…it’s just that…ermm…I have some other people issues that I am busy with right now…hmm yeah, kind of why I missed your calls earlier. So, I might not be guaranteed to show up. You have a contingency for that?”

“Nah, you’re the contingency, if I must be honest. No offense…and well, otherwise we’ll stick to the normal plan. All in check at your side?”

“Ehh, guess so”

“You okay? You sound weary”

“Err…I haven’t slept for the…err…past 3 days. Been busy”

“Didn’t know maintaining peace could that busy,” Adi said jokingly

“Bishh, we’re born peacekeepers. Why would peacekeeping in wartime be less tiring than in peacetime, eh”

“Wow, the chaos sure has wiped my mind clean then”

“Well, be careful it doesn’t do more than that! Kinda why I opted out of being a Republic general, especially after that shitshow on Geonosis. Maintaining the existing peace fits me better, I think”

“Appeases the spirits of your ancestors around you eh?”

“Sorta. And that has left me worried for Barriss. The way she jumps into combat so readily. Not very Mirialan of her to do, fighting for a cause outside the Fathe…I mean our species. It’s a species thing, don’t worry”

“Yeah, for a second, you sounded like the whole nationalism thing got to you”

“For a second, I did too”

“Anyway, we’ll be arriving in about twelve hours’ time, maybe a little more. We left Coruscant about an hour ago, so we should be on schedule”

“Alright then. So, to recap, I just need to keep the MDF from interfering when it goes down?”

“Yup. And seriously, do help us if you can”

“Very well then. May the Force be with you, Adi”

“May the Force be with you, Rara”

The comms was cut off. Luminara stared into the darkness of her room as her eyes began to adjust back to the darkness. She then pulled out her pocket computer and tapped on the hologram display…yes, the call had been recorded fully. She then went back to the communicator and tapped on an entry in her contacts list…yes, the one marked “Governor Lanci Ferrousia”

“Hello, Ms Unduli?”

“Mr Ferrousia, thanks for answering…”

\---

_Present time_

As the group neared the entrance of the plaza, a pair of patrol droids came out from an alleyway and approached them

“Halt please, we need to check your identification”

“Very well then,” one of the MDF generals replied, producing a false identity hologram

“And are these humans and Tholothians with you also?” The droids began after inspecting the hologram

“Yes, they are. Clients from the Mid Rim. We were taking them to a restaurant to discuss business”

“We will need to inspect all of yours and all of their identification. This will take no more than 3 minutes”

“Okay then”

The droids began to pick up the identity holograms from the group and inspect them

Stass tapped Adi on her shoulder

“Err, notice something…off?”

“What is…wait,” Adi began to look around. “Why is the crowd scattering?”

“Should I tell them…”

“Yes, we’ll do it”

Stass and Adi began to subtly walk back to the ARC troopers, signalling for them to prep their arms, in case the fireworks started

And the fireworks started

The police droids backed off as dozens of masked and armoured MGF troopers surrounded the group, blaster rifles in hand

“This is Governor Lanci Ferrousia, speaking for the Mirial Ground Forces! All of you are to drop your weapons and surrender at once! Failure to compl…”

Fives had already pulled his DC-15S blaster from his briefcase, as Adi yanked her lightsabre from her cardigan

“Open fire! Stun only!” Ferrousia shouted

The traitorous generals hid behind the ARC troopers and the Jedi as stun shots started flying into the encircled group. Adi and Stass had already bounced shots off their sabres as they were igniting, while the troopers had fully unsheathed their blasters, quickly returning fire. Stass reached into her pocket and tapped on a hidden emergency transponder, one that would signal to the Republic Navy forces that were near the Mirialan-Republic border of an emergency

And nothing. The transponder returned a beeping that signalled “Message not sent”

Stass didn’t even have time to think it through, as she bounced a stun shot back to one of the MGF troopers, knocking them to the floor, but not knocking them out… armour

The real danger to the MGF troopers were the ARC troopers. They felt no reason to take prisoners at that juncture, as the shots of blue plasma on kill streaked through the air. Several MGF troopers took shots, and one died even before the first stun bolt landed on one of the ARC trooper’s neck, bypassing his undershirt armour and knocking him out cold

The two ARCs beside him got briefly distracted for a moment, and that was all it took for stun bolts to find their mark and land hard on those two. There were five of them left…Fives ducked down and rolled over to one of the fallen troopers, seizing his DC-15S carbine and dual wielding them, cutting down another of the opponents and supressing the rest beside that guy. As he turned around to face the other side of the circle, he could only watch as the remaining four troopers were knocked out too, in exchange for ten wounded and two more dead MGF troopers

And then a stun bolt hit him on his chest armour. He turned to the source of fire, firing at that asshole just as they ducked down, below the streaks of blue plasma. And those two shots were all that came, as Fives was knocked out too with a dozen shots from behind

The Jedi stared on in a bit of shock. Nowhere had they ever seen ARC troopers, the best of the best that Kamino had to offer, be taken out that easily, within half a minute. The MGF troopers made even the feared Separatist BX droids look like jokes

The stun fire died down, but the weapons were still trained on the Jedi and the traitors

“Surrender now, and we’ll allow all of you to return home!”

“How about no!” One of the generals shouted as he pulled out a hidden blaster pistol

The stun fire resumed, but none were trained on the Jedi. They instead hit the traitorous generals and sent them tumbling like sacks of tubers, their pistols clacking away

It was the two Tholothians now, encircled by a wall of at least a hundred Mirialans

“This is your final warning! Drop your weapons or we will maim you!” Ferrousia demanded

“Hey! Piss off!” Stass yelled back

The blasters were trained on the duo. But only one began shooting

It was the same trooper who had somehow dodged Five’s blaster fire, and now they began to charge at the Jedi, alone

Stass bounced a stun shot back towards that trooper, but they simply leaped over the shot. They tossed the blaster at Stass, causing her to swoop her lightsabre down on the flying object aimed at her face

As she did, a green streak of plasma came from the trooper’s hand…not a weapon, a lightsabre, and it clashed so hard on an unprepared Stass that her own green sabre was forced out from her hands

“No! No, stop!” Adi yelled, her blue blade of plasma streaking in. And the second green blade of plasma igniting from that trooper’s other hand gave no doubts as to _her_ identity

The twin green lightsabres caught Adi’s as she took a swing at Luminara, who simply responded with a Force push as their sabres locked. Adi quickly cleared the dust from her eyes and was ready to charge in and…

Stass was pinned to the floor, Luminara having levelled her knee on her neck, with one of her sabres on the bottom Stass’s back

“You know I won’t kill my friends, Adi. But if you don’t drop your bloody sabre, she stays crippled for life,” she warned, peeling off her mask with her free hand, while the other held the green blade that hovered menacingly over Stass’s backbone

“Adi! No! Finish the mission!”

“Keep going, girl,” Luminara taunted

“Shut up! Shut the fuck up! You traitor!” Stass was almost in tears

Jedi Master Adi Gallia looked around her, gripping her lightsabre. Her troopers were out cold, as were her assets, and the one Jedi she made a secret vow to her family to always protect on the verge on being maimed…

What mission?

Even if she somehow got the generals awake and into the Parliament, the civilian ruling body would be prepared to face them

“Adi! Leave me!”

“No…no, I can’t…” Adi switched her weapon off

“No! Don’t do this! Please!” Stass began crying as Adi laid her lightsabre to the ground

“Unlike me, she won’t betray you”

It was over before it began

On Ferrousia’s commands, Adi was forced to comply as she dropped to her knees and allowed her wrists to be cuffed behind her back, while a Force blocking collar was latched around her neck. Luminara switched off her sabre after that, pinning a struggling and crying Stass Allie to the ground as she was cuffed and collared too. The last thing the two Jedi saw before they felt the prick of needles into their arm was an armoured landspeeder approaching…


	4. Introducing Snips

Anakin Skywalker paced around on the command deck of the _Resolute_ , his personal flagship. It was beautiful and sleek, a state-of-the-art Venator-class Star Destroyer. Two thousand of these war vessels had been produced for the Republic, with over ten thousand on the way. They formed the backbone of the Navy of the Grand Army of the Republic, the glorious fighting force of the greatest power in the Galaxy. The sight of a fleet of these ships would be more than enough to give the average Separatist local militia second thoughts about standing off

Now however, the _Resolute_ and her two wing-ships sat idly in the Outer Rim, a light-year away from the edge of Mirial solar system. Undetectable to the MDF’s scanners, they were patiently awaiting the black ops team on Rokkalia’s Capital District to give the all clear signal, or otherwise, an emergency extraction signal

…nothing…it has been three hours since they announced their touchdown. What could be keeping them?

“General, we have a small vessel approaching us. Marked friendly,” the silence on the bridge was broken by the radar operator’s voice

“Ping them me for, please,” Anakin nonchalantly replied

The holoprojector lit up, and an image of the Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee came online

“Hello Anakin”

“Hello Barriss. Didn’t know you would be linking your forces with us so soon”

“Err, not really. Unless the 501st needs the whole of Green Company to link up so soon. Also, that’s beside the point, because the High Council sent me here with an important delivery to you”

“Delivery?”

“You’ll have to see her yourself”

“Her? Erm, okay, we’ll receive you shortly”

“See you then,” the line was cut off

Anakin then reached for his communicator, and scrolled down his contacts list, tapping on the one marked “Obi-Wan”

“Master, I’ll be going to the main shuttle bay on my ship. Will you be available to join with me there?”

“Oh certainly. Regarding the High Council’s delivery that had your address marked on it?” Obi-Wan Kenobi’s suave accent replied

“Guess so. Address huh? That’s a funny way of describing this floating…err…home”

“That was definitely you back then, your first few weeks into the Jedi Temple”

“You know I kinda hate change”

“And what else do you hate? I’m guessing whenever Master Yoda tells you that hate leads to anger and something?”

“Urgh, don’t remind me,” Anakin began making his way to the shuttle bay. “Anyway, I’ll be there in two minutes”

Anakin nodded to Admiral Wullf Yularen, as he took over command of the bridge…

\---

The sleek Coruscanti starship made a graceful touchdown on the _Resolute_ ’s shuttle bay. Out from the vessel, the Vaylaan-Mirialan Jedi stepped out from the ramp in her distinct black blouse, trousers and dark blue headscarf. Behind her came a young, orange skinned Togrutan teen girl

“Greetings, Barriss,” Anakin called

“Greetings Ani. Your, uh…special delivery is here”

“Well show me then. And also,” Anakin looked at the Togrutan girl. “Aren’t Mirialan Jedi only supposed to train fellow Mirialans? What’s with your future Padawan being…err…”

“That’s not my future Padawan,” Barriss replied, clearly annoyed. “That’s yours!”

“The hell?”

“Hi there, my name is Ahsoka Tano! You must be Master Skywalker! Can I just call you Skyguy from now on?” The girl opened up

Within Ahsoka’s first three sentences of speaking to him, Anakin already detested her. Everything about her put him off, from her complete lack of situational awareness of the war around them, to her child-like style of conveying herself, to even her skimpy and in his mind, unprofessional, outfit

“Don’t you dare get so snippy with me, kid”

“Oh, you gotta get used to me, Skyguy. I’m still on your side”

“I kinda thought the when I started my tutelage of you, Anakin!” Obi-Wan’s voice came from behind

“C’mon Master, you know it wasn’t that bad”

“Bad, is hard to tell from you”

“Oooh, are you the Master Kenobi everyone talks about? The one who killed the first Sith in a thousand years?” Ahsoka stayed bubbly as ever

Before Anakin could snap back, a ping came onto his holoprojector communicator. Yoda visualised onto the projector

“Greetings, young Skywalker,” Yoda began over the comms. “Your new Padawan, I trust you have been acquainted with, hmm?”

“Master Yoda, there must have been some kind of mistake. Younglings don’t belong in a war, and I don’t have the time to divert for caring for yet another being”

“Ah, but wrong you are, Anakin. Your path in this war, uncertain it is. To learn to care for all around you, not just the ones you want to, is a path in life you must learn. Focus on the greater world around you, you must learn to balance, as balance in the Force, you too must learn”

“Yes Master,” Anakin replied in annoyance, wishing the call would end

“Patience and respect, we must all develop, if victorious, we are to come out in this conflict. Learn from young Tano you must, as learn from you she will”

Anakin kept silent. This is getting ridiculous, he thought

“Something to say, you have, hmm?”

“Nothing much, Master Yoda. I appreciate your way of teaching me the Jedi path”

“Very well then. May the Force be with you, young Skywalker”

“As do you too, Master”

The line was cut off

Obi-Wan and Barriss looked at each other, both had the same thoughts in their heads: Anakin wants Ahsoka as far from him as possible

The brief silence in the shuttle bay was broken by Ahsoka’s cheerful chirping

“Okay then, Masters! What is the mission that I need to know of?”

Anakin snapped back to reality

“Well, ermm…hmm. We are awaiting the team that was sent down to the Mirial system to respond. Except that they are taking way longer than expected”

“What are they doing, that we couldn’t go with them at first?”

“They would help the Mirialans who were friendly to us…err, sway the local government to join our side in the war. They are neutral now, but by joining us, we could be of great mutual aid to each other”

“But, why would they not be on our side?”

“It’s hard to read what they are thinking. But I guess it’s just pride in them. Pride in their history and in not having anyone to answer to, I think,” Anakin was doing his best to end the conversation and take Ahsoka to the bridge to familiarise her to the command structure

“Urgh, why would anyone do that? It’s so silly that they wouldn’t help the good guys in…” Ahsoka began to blabber on about her thoughts on the situation, but Anakin decided to cut her off

“Look, young Padawan, there are things about this war that you don’t yet understand, and that you need to learn more about. Why don’t you come with us to the bridge, where I can explain more of this?

“Okay, Skyguy”

As the duo walked towards the turbolifts, Obi-Wan nudges Anakin

“I can definitely see Master Yoda’s intent for her and for you”

“I think I might see it too. Eventually”

The new Master-Padawan duo entered the lift to the bridge, while the other duo stayed behind

“Say, are you returning to the Temple, Barriss?”

“No. They told me I might be needed to help Luminara in case negotiations get difficult. You too, Master Kenobi, will be of great help”

Obi-Wan then wordlessly went to the lobby and waited for the next bridge lift


	5. Help me to help you

Stass Allie woke up in the cold, metallic confines of the prison speeder. Everything came as a blur to her, but she still tried to launch herself from the bench she was sitting on. At once, troopers were pinning her down, grabbing her bound arms and hitting her with stun batons. She struggled fiercely even as she felt her ankles being manacled

Seeing Adi missing, she began to scream. And she screamed. She screamed and she tried to bite at one of the troopers who was attempting to gag her. She felt and saw another one of them pin her down again…

They were pinning her down, repeatedly…it didn’t make much sense

One of them slapped her, and she felt herself falling down

Falling…

“Wake up, Stass!”

Stass hit the ground…hit the mattress, and the trooper who slapped her materialised into Adi Gallia

“You know you almost bit my finger off, right? You must have had a terrible nightmare”

“Adi! Oh, I dreamt that we were captured on the mission, and then they cut off the Force from me, and I panicked and…” Stass’ hands shot up to her neck, and she felt the collar still firmly locked on

“It…it wasn’t a dream?” A confused Stass began. Why did the recent events in her memory seemed half clear and half weird?

“We were captured, yes. That wasn’t a dream. Then we were sedated and brought here. I woke up and was weighing our options when you started thrashing around in your sleep…I think you’re not used to having the Force severed from you. Argh, this stupid collar,” Adi explained, her calm voice betraying the creeping knots in her stomach

Stass sat up from her bed and took a moment to look around. The two Jedi were confined to a windowless cell that was about ten square meters in area, with a double bed in the middle and lined with soft carpet. Stass felt her hands had been unbound, but replaced with a single manacle that clasped around her bare left ankle. It was attached to the wall of the cell behind the bed with a thin construction cable made of durasteel, giving them three meters of free movement. She could see the same was for Adi, except it went for her right ankle, rather than her left prosthetic leg

There were two doors in the room. One was clearly the exit door, shut tight with electronic locks. The other was probably to the restroom and faucet

“Oh, Adi!” Stass threw her lanky body into her shorter cousin’s arms as the full weight of the situation hit her, just as half her weight slammed into Adi

“Right now, the only thing we can do is remain calm, you understand me? Meditate on your own mind, clear all dark emotions,” Adi said reassuringly. “And obey their commands. Mirialans are not known for being nice to their prisoners, so there is only one reason I can think of that we got a relatively…err…nice room for a cell”

“Please, stop making excuses for that bitch”

“Stass, no. Don’t taunt her, she is in control of us now. And remember, I’ve been alongside her since Naboo. I know what Luminara is like. I know she’s not one to revolt against the Jedi Order for no reason. Perhaps what is happening now is the will of the Force”

“Adi, don’t let her get into your head! This isn’t you!”

“Look, we are in a world of shit. We have to consider all possibilities. And you don’t know her the way I do”

“But-”

Before Stass could continue, the door to the cell opened. Neither where mistaken as to who it was, not with that distinctive pentagonal headdress and long brown robes

“Are you okay, Adi? And Stass?” Luminara sounded genuinely concerned

“No thanks to you,” Stass snapped back. “What do you want?”

“Perhaps Adi can explain this to you, once I’ve communicated our people’s stance to the High Council,” Luminara replied as she tossed a loose bundle of cream coloured fabric onto the bed before Adi. “Your robes. Get changed and ready to go talk to them. With me”

The manacle on Adi’s leg popped off. She then proceeded to peel off her summer dress and leggings (during which Stass realised while they still had their old clothes, all transponders and hidden razors had been removed), then donning her Jedi robes and following Luminara out…

\---

_Thirty minutes earlier_

“…And you’ll show these men the respect their due respect. Mutual respect goes a long way”

“Okay, Master Skywalker”

Ahsoka Tano took her time to take in the expanse of the bridge. Anakin had introduced all of the bridge crew to his young apprentice, all of whom gave the same “the-hell-are-you-doing-here” look to the kid. Indeed, all of them thought the same as Anakin when he first saw a young child about to be sent to the frontlines

Before he could continue his lesson, an alarm beeped on the nav-station

“Yellow alert! There is an unknown ship emerging from hyperspace in…five seconds!”

“Okay Snips. You better be ready to learn from what is to come, and pay attention”

“Hmm, alright th-”

Ahsoka was interrupted by the emergence of an old, unmarked passenger ferry about a kilometre in front of the _Resolute_. It was armed only with a small laser battery that was clearly for self-defence only. Still, all precautions had to be taken in this time. Many factions past and present have used explosive-laden unmarked ships to approach larger starships in suicide runs. The yellow alert was raised amongst the three Star Destroyers

“Wait, hold on!” Obi-Wan called from behind. “Isn’t that the same ferry that Master Gallia and the ARC troopers left in?”

“What? That’s strange,” Admiral Yularen quipped

“Sir, I shall ping them to confirm,” one of the comms officers replied

“Permission granted. Call them”

The comms officers began to ping the vessel…no reply…they pinged it again

“Greetings Republic officers. I am a police droid in service to Rokkalia, of the United Nations of Mirial. I am tasked to return your vessel to where it belongs. I am now requesting permission to land on your ship”

“Lower your shields and allow us to run scans”

“Shields lowered”

The bridge crew of the _Resolute_ began to scan the ferry…nothing. No new hidden compartments, no volatile substances on board, just 8 lifeforms aboard

Eight, out of the ten who departed. The atmosphere on the bridge got more tense

“Permission granted to land in shuttle bay 1. One false move and we will blow out the cockpit. Over and out”

Even as the chief comms officer was giving his last command, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka were on their way to the turbolift to the shuttle bay

\---

The turbolift doors opened to a shuttle bay that had been cleared out, less Barriss and a handful of Green Company clone troopers. They stood at the ferry’s main exit, weapons at the ready as the door began to lower down to open

“Standby…”

The landing mist cleared out, as the Mirialan police droid stepped out, carrying an old-fashioned clipboard on one of its appendages

“This is a letter from your representative on our soil. In addition, we are returning your troopers and vessel to you”

The lights in the entrance bay of the ferry lit up, as the Green Company troopers walked in on 8 unconscious and shackled ARC troopers. Outside, Barriss snatched the letter from the droid. She began reading and…

“No…no!”

Barriss recoiled in shock as she dropped the clipboard

“Barriss? What’s happening?” Ahsoka called as she walked over

“This…this cannot be happening!”

Ahsoka lifted up the clipboard and looked at the letter on it, with Anakin and Obi-Wan leaning in on it. Handwritten in old fashioned ink, it read:

“No prizes for guessing who this is. Tell the whole Council and every one of you waiting on our border to gather on the planning station. Don’t try anything funny, we have two hostages. Ping Master Gallia’s communicator when all of you are ready”

Obi-Wan immediately realised why Barriss was in shock: it was Luminara Unduli’s handwriting

\---

_Twenty-five minutes later_

“This situation has just got from not even bad to begin with, to actually bad,” Ki Adi Mundi’s holograph spoke, fading in and out from the bad reception, owing to Mygeeto’s remote location. “If Luminara can pull this off, who else in the Order can we not trust anymore?”

“Patience, you must have, Ki Adi,” Yoda interjected. “Think of her perspective, you must”

“I’m trying to, and it’s giving me two headaches!”

Before anything more could be said, Adi’s communicator pinged the central planning station

“I’ll pick it up,” Mace Windu started

“Greetings, Masters. How does the collar look on me?” Adi popped in

“This is the wrong time for jokes, Luminara,” Obi-Wan demanded. “Master Gallia, just get to the point in the script where you explain their demands for your release”

“Erm, okay, err…” Adi briefly looked away before continuing. “The Mirialans want to sign a formal non-aggression pact with the Republic. All direct exports to Coruscant will be suspended for up to a standard year. And finally, the Supreme Chancellor is to issue a formal apology to the people of Mirial for this show of aggression, and this betrayal of the previously agreed neutrality. That’s kinda it”

“That’s all? Unfortunately, the first has to be routed to the Republic Senate, and that can take weeks!”

“Not to mention how unlikely it is for the Chancellor to show weakness in issuing an apology to a single system,” Kit Fisto added

“Well then!” Luminara shoved Adi off the holoprojector space. “The most I can give for this is ten standard days. Already, the news of what your troopers were doing is spreading across Mirialan HoloNet like wildfire, and Separatist sympathy is picking up. If the Republic does not act now, we’ll start attracting the attention of the Separatist military council. And then General Grievous shows up and, well!”

“You rewind that a little, Rara,” Shaak Ti commented. “What if we don’t comply in ten days, but the Separatists don’t come?”

“Then in ten days, I’ll take my own life to show you the resolve of our people. If that won’t move you, let’s just say I’ll be the only one returning to the Temple without missing limbs and eyelids. Remember, most Mirialans don’t play nice with their prisoners, but I do. Please help me to help you”

Before anyone could ask the next most obvious question, Adi’s line went adios


	6. You're not one of us

“I don’t understand it. Why is Luminara doing this?” Anakin wondered aloud, pacing around the _Resolute’s_ meeting room

“Maybe she has, err, fallen to the Dark Side?” Ahsoka shot out

“No, don’t even suggest that, please,” Barriss replied

“Whatever it is, if I get a hold of her, she’ll regret all of this,” Anakin glowered

“Now then, General Skywalker. Remember that even in these dark times, we must not be rash. Our fleet has one of the lowest casualty rates in the Republic Navy so far, and your wit, cunning and great clairvoyance has certainly contributed,” Yularen replied calmly. “We do not need to throw our men away on a whim”

“Well, you did almost throw yourself away on a whim with your rashness against Dooku,” Obi-Wan added

Anakin gave a slight frown. He didn’t need to be reminded of that, much less in front of his new Padawan, who was, if anything, excited at the prospect of action. Yularen could see it in her eyes too. Young, naïve, an idealistic way of thinking, and she’s in for rude shock, the Admiral thought to himself

“Why is Master Unduli even on her home world though, with neither the clone army nor with you, Barriss?” Ahsoka questioned

“Something about not wanting to fight in the war, because Jedi are peacekeepers and something, and she could help keep Mirial’s peace or something,” Barriss went monotonously. “I don’t know why the Council allowed her refusal to the war, and by now, I don’t care. I just want her back”

“Careful there, Barriss. I think you’re getting too attached to her”

“Shush before I smack you. You really, really need to know when to open your mouth and when to shut your trap. We can’t always be rigid with rules in all situat-”

“Whoa, whoa err, sorry. Still friends?”

Anakin decided to stop the bickering

“Quiet, you two, and let’s focus on our situation. I think I have an idea. Master Gallia and her men were able to slip through their checkpoints with false documents quite easily, and that means we could too. I propose some of us travel down to the Capital District and spy on them, in order to search for a crack in their security. Once we’ve done our homework, we can get the jump on any cracks in their security, and pull Adi and Stass out. And Luminara too. We could even have left the system before they notice, if we’re fast”

“They’ll be on high alert regarding immigrations after what just happened, General. To try the same deception on them twice? It is too risky for me to recommend. Also, what about the repercussions of the rest of the populace in what is essentially a kidnapping?”

“Anakin, I agree with the admiral. I believe it’s best we consult the High Council on this matter,” Obi-Wan concluded

“Fine, but I’m ready to take this risk”

\---

The door to the cell was opened, waking Stass from her half-conscious daydream. A blindfolded Adi Gallia was led in, with Luminara right behind. She, however, did not turn to leave the room, but instead stepped in, letting the door shut on the trio

“Why, Rara? We trusted you, gave you the permission to aid your home world on your own terms, and you stab us in the back?” Adi whined out as she removed the blindfold

“I stabbed the Republic, not the Jedi Order. If anything, all of you in the High Council stabbed our devotion to peacekeeping by getting involved in this whole war!”

“How dare you say that!” Stass shouted. “The Code says to keep the peace, yes, but in times of war, we fight to restore the peace! That’s why we are also called Jedi Warriors! Because the Jedi have fought for the innocent lives of the Republic for thousands of years!”

“Those wars are not like this one. This Clone War is different, and we are wrong to be involved in this war, and I can expl-”

“Don’t you use “we”. You’re not one of us, not anymore”

“Yeah, no, you can’t decide that, Stass. And see, times have ch-”

“I can’t, but Adi can. Right?”

“Not yet.” Adi levelled herself

“Stop it! Stop giving her free passes!” Stass’ temper rose

Ignoring that, Luminara simply continued, “As I was saying, times have changed, but not our values. This is not our fight, least of all when the enemy are not some deranged conqueror, but just some civilians trying to secede and do their own thing!”

“Are you blind? The Separatists have attacked the people of Republic in their so-called secession! Their civilians? How about ours?” Stass yelled passionately

“Are you referring to the Separatists as a whole? Or their military wing, that is being played by the major galactic corporations?”

“What you even going on about? Why don’t you just join the Separatists at this rate? Since you’re so good at defending t-”

“That’s not what I fucking meant! Have none of you realised how strange it is that the same corporations that once bullied the Separatists member states are now fighting on their behalf? Don’t you see that there is something beyond our control in this war?”

“What, corporations being opportunists in the face of a new customer? Yeah, totally unexpected and inconceivable”

“No, but that the Dark Side looms over this whole war. Dooku played the previously peaceful Separatists into accepting the Droid Army with the excuse of deterrence, otherwise, they would have too much pride to cooperate with their former bullies. This isn’t even a conspiracy theory, all of us saw his boasting on the HoloNet before the war started. But his plan wasn’t deterrence. He had no peaceful secession plan once he took over the Separatist movement. This whole thing is just a Sith scheme to tear the Republic apart, and conquer it from within. You know very well he has assets within the Republic. And we are making it worse by fighting the wrong enemy!”

“So, who’s this right enemy? You’ve had too much to drink. Sober up, you’ll see you’re wrong”

“How about you meditate on what I said? You are being blinded by your anger. That’s not the Jedi way. Hey, you gotta calm down. Trust me, I know getting severed from the Force needs time to get used to-”

“I wished I could sever you from the Force forever”

“-and learn from your cousin; Adi taught me to stay calm while I was dealing with Barriss’ past antics”

Adi simply continued to wordlessly stare, even as her name was mentioned. Meanwhile, Stass gave up talking

“For the sake of the Galaxy, tell the Council to stop being so obstinate,” Luminara said as she telekinetically picked up Adi’s manacle and latched it onto her ankle, getting ready to exit the room. “You probably think that of me too, because I emphasise the rule of being a peacekeeper, but try thinking that of yourselves, and you’ll come up with a new view”

“You won’t tell us what to do!” Stass called out as the cell door opened for Luminara to make herself scarce

“And if it’s any consolation, girls, know that I was lying to them about the whole part about Separatist sympathies picking up. But the Seppies still might catch wind, that I can feel”

As the door shut, Adi fell onto the bed back first. She could barely swallow the info dump they just received

\---

_Two hours later_

“General Grievous!” The tactical droid sauntered up to the Kaleesh cyborg warrior. “Some new developments from the Mirial system!”

Floating in orbit around the Separatist capital planet of Raxus Secundus, the _Malevolence_ purred around idly. It was a one-of-a-kind heavy cruiser, sporting a massive EMP cannon on its port flank that could take out the shields of any Republic star destroyer. It also served as the flagship of the Droid Army’s commander, General Grievous

To those who would soon be fighting alongside as-of-yet secret ship, it was a work of art, a beauty in shipbuilding, a weapon to serve

To those who would not, it was going to be quite the technological terror

On board the bridge, Grievous walked up to the droid, twirling around the dossier he was currently holding

“What is the news?” He demanded, in his usual metallic voice

“We are reading social media postings with some anti-Republic sentiments on the HoloNet, originating from one of the Mirialan planets. Apparently, the Republic sent Jedi to try to subvert the local government and turn them to the Republic, but the plan fell on its face, and the Jedi got captured. None of what we received are official reports, but from the way these HoloNet posts are written, I am predicting a 76.2% likelihood that these events are indeed true”

“Ah, finally an opportunity to absorb Mirial into our ranks! And with the potential for zero losses to our fleet!”

“I wouldn’t be too excited yet, General. Firstly, what we have are still rumours. Secondly, if we show up on their doorsteps too early, or if we appear as aggressive as the Republic, they could turn on us. Based on my historical database, the Mirialans have fought against multiple factions in large wars simultaneously. I am estimating a 96% chance that they will actively fight against both us and the Republic, should the both of us show up at their doorsteps together”

“Enough of this, Lieutenant. I am calling a green light on a show of force to Mirial. This is a mighty fine opportunity for us, and I have no intent of losing their resources”

“General Grievous!” A sophisticated accent came from one of the holoprojectors on the table beside Grievous. It was Count Dooku himself, clearly having overheard the conversation from the planet’s surface. “We shall continue this call in your private study”

“Yes, my Lord,” Grievous proceeded towards his study, as the tactical droid watched on, already calculating the astronomical chances of failure, should any action be taken so prematurely

\---

Anakin watched as the last of the hologramic identity cards were printed. Normally used to replace missing Republic Navy identity cards, they were now churning out two cards that bore the names of business travellers from Naboo, and one of a Vaylaani citizen. One for Anakin, one for Obi-Wan, and the latter for Barriss. None for the young Togrutan girl, Ahsoka wouldn’t blend in at all

This was a massive risk on every level. From the Nabooian Senator (and Anakin’s secret wife) having to sign off on the Nabooian seals, an act that if discovered, could spark a cold war between the two friendly systems, to the Jedi Council having to brace for the backlash of more Jedi being discovered in places they didn’t belong in. Obi-Wan was actually surprised that the Council relented on Anakin’s plan. They clearly were desperate at this point: Not only to rescue a Council member, but potentially also pick up a rogue Jedi Master, in order to probe her and see how a Jedi could be swayed against the Republic

Everyone was holding their breath at this point. The Mirialans were going to be pissed whether the mission was a success or not

\---

“General Grievous”

“Lord Dooku,” Grievous bent to his knee before the image of Dooku on his personal desk

“Pardon me for eavesdropping on your earlier conversation, but the tactical droid is right. All we have are social media rumours to go on. We must exercise caution at every turn and try not to push a potential ally around”

“Yes, my Lord. But I was thinking that if shit hits the fan, we could always display the might of the _Malevolence_ on the Mirialans. They will know that they are overwhelmed, just as the Trade Federation had did those years back”

“I’m not approving the use of the _Malevolence_ so soon. The ship stays a secret until we have an opportunity to use them against Republic fleets. They are the highest priority, not some overly bloated single system”

“Yes, my Lord. So, are we going to take any immediate action?”

“I am sending my best apprentice in for a spy mission to Mirial as we speak”

“The dark warrior known as Ventress?”

“I see her reputation has been building up within the Separatist ranks. More of you will do well to understand her powers and the fear she can unleash upon the Republic! Where you hit them head-on, she cuts them from behind”

“Didn’t she also lose her first sabre duel against the Jedi known as Skywalker on the moon of Yavin?”

“She was meant to lose that duel. But now that she survived, she will not be holding back at all. And that is much to our benefit too”

“Very well, my Lord. I do not, however, intend for the _Malevolence_ to become a floating droid hotel”

“You will have your opportunity soon. And remember, in the unlikely event we must move in on Mirial, I do not wish to see the _Malevolence_ show up”

“I fully acknowledge this, my Lord”

The line was cut off, leaving Grievous to withdraw his earlier orders


	7. Please state your purpose of visit

Dressed in plainclothes, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Barriss boarded the small, yellow freight vessel. The crew of the _Resolute_ watched as it took off from the shuttle bay, before jumping to hyperspace, skirting around Mirial to make it seem it came in from the direction of Naboo

“Sir?” One of the newer bridge officers, an ensign, approached Admiral Yularen. “With all due respect to them, but why are we allowing the Jedi to make such important and risky decisions that put the Republic at stake? First, they get to command us, despite us having actual ship combat training. Next, this. Are they not supposed to be a sect of warrior monks? Why do they involve themselves in the Navy?”

“They have fought for the Republic historically, as they do now. You see, they have a great connection to the Force, and that gives them great knowledge and wisdom in battle and in all situations. They like to invent strategies that are unorthodox and that require the clairvoyance only they possess. That makes them a mighty asset for us”

“They may have the knowledge, but we have the experience!”

“And they’ll eventually catch up to us, won’t they? We must be more accepting of people with unique skills. Diversity of skills is what will allow us to be victorious”

“I’m still sceptical, sir. Half the time I see them, they play too nice”

“War isn’t just about conquest and action. Diplomacy and negotiation are also important too,” Yularen paused a second, before lowering his volume to not embarrass the ensign with his next question. “Also, are you only asking this because the Jedi are gone and out of earshot?”

“Honestly sir, yes”

“You know that Togrutan kid who just came onboard is a Jedi too, right? And given her narrow view of things, it would be wise to not let her hear those kinds of opinions. I don’t know how kindly she’ll take to them”

“Er, she isn’t on the bridge at all, sir. And I didn’t see her in the shuttle bay or the corridors either”

“Hmm? That’s odd, I remembered them telling her to stay in sight of the commanders, in case we need her insights”

“I don’t know, maybe she’s in her quarters or something. You know what kids are like, sir”

\---

Barriss began wandering around the freighter. Something about the vessel felt off, as if the spirits were unbalanced. She stepped into the cargo hold, where it felt the apparent…perhaps there was some Force-sensitive cargo onboard?

“Barriss! We’ve just dropped from hyperspace and are approaching their checkpoint in 5 minutes. I need you to be present at the cockpit,” Obi-Wan’s voice came over the PA system

She wordlessly walked out of the cargo hold. I’ll look at this later, she uttered in her mind. From the cockpit windows, the checkpoint was apparent. Barriss looked upon the grey, circular structure floating a hundred kilometres from the planet’s structure. The planetary shield gate had more police activity around it than she last remembered. That was when she paid a visit to her Master two months prior. No doubt, the Rokkalians were on alert, after the recent fiasco

“Well, I have a bad feeling about this,” Obi-Wan muttered

“We have to do this, Master,” Anakin insisted

“Right then, we’re next in line on the queue”

The Customs pinged their ship, and the trio sent an image of their travel documents as the team before did. They waited for the response from the other side

…

“It has been 3 minutes. Even the few ships before us weren’t this slow each,” Anakin whispered

“Last thing I need is to be captured by Rokkalians. Did I ever tell you about the eternal tensions between them and us?” Barriss started to flutter

“This is not history class, Barriss,” Obi-Wan replied sharply. “Keep your eyes peeled for any and all details, an-“

“Passengers, you may proceed. Welcome to Rokkalia”

They didn’t show it, but all clearly were much relieved. Of course, that could only last so long: the actual mission was only now beginning. They knew this as they watched the night lights of the Capital District began to appear brighter and brighter as the descend continued

With their route settled, Barriss elected to return back to the cargo hold. Something there almost seemed to call to her. She could sense it again, and just as she was about to flip the door-open switch…

“Hi Barriss!”

“Why, you little…”

\---

The sleek looking silver vessel dropped out of hyperspace. It was long and slender, with a bulbous cockpit at its head that was contained in blood red glass. It didn’t show it yet, but the Ginivex-class starfighter, in combat mode, could unfold at pair of beams from top and bottom that held up two red sheets of conductive metal like a hand-fan. Its nickname of the Fanblade Fighter only added to the myths surrounding such an exotic vessel, alongside its deadly kill records and the mysterious pilot in her cockpit

And this pilot was none other than the Sith Acolyte, Asajj Ventress. The Dathomirian swordswoman in her late twenties had a grey complexion, sported a completely bald head and was inked with various black facial tattoos. Just as Darth Maul had been an assassin for Darth Sidious and Darth Plagueis eleven years prior, Ventress was under the tutelage of Count Dooku and served as a secret assassin for the Sith Lords. Needless to say, she was highly ambitious and frequently imagined herself as a Dark Lady of the Sith in the future

For now, however, she had many trials and tasks to accomplish to even have Dooku consider her a worthy apprentice once he decided to overthrow Palpatine as Sith Master. He had several fallen Jedi and Dark Jedi-from-birth in his payroll, serving both as open and secret apprentices. For him to choose his true apprentice would be like a kid in a candy store, and this made Ventress competitive

Very competitive

She stared through the cockpit windows upon the pair of blue-and-beige marbles that were the twin Mirialan homeworlds. Checking the nav-computer one last time to verify that she was headed for the right planet, she reclined back onto the pilot’s seat, watching as the Rokkalian checkpoint gate slowly appeared on her nav screen. Through her eyes, it appeared as an insignificant grey ring on the planet, and of course it grew in size until it resembled a space structure of any consequence, along with a couple of waiting ships

\---

“Ahsoka, this is _exactly_ what I told you not to do!” Anakin was livid

“Master, I believe you guys would need all the help you can get-”

“Master Kenobi is here to negotiate! Barriss to talk sense to Luminara, and me in case of fights! We all have roles to play, but you’re jeopardising everythi-”

“Master, please, I-“

“And how dare you interrupt me! You were to stay on the fleet and help them! You’re not making things easier, having to look out for one more person! And what if we are searched during our departure and we can’t explain why we have a kid on board?”

Ahsoka was silent

“You may think you know what’s going on, but you don’t! You were given orders, and you jolly well follow them to keep yourself safe!”

“Anakin, that’s enough,” Obi-Wan stepped into the cockpit, where Anakin was giving his new apprentice a dressing-down, while the vessel was descending on autopilot. “Look, Ahsoka did something wrong. She’ll have to answer for that later on. Which should sound familiar to you. But for now, we are on a mission, we can’t stop now, and we have to accept this change in plans. Getting angry solves nothing”

“Sorry, Master Skywalker,” was all Ahsoka could muster. She knew there was no talking her way out of this

“I could accept your sorry, Snips, but I can’t speak for the other Jedi. And Obi-Wan, I just need to make sure this doesn’t happen again”

“You must then trust the Force to guide her. Remember, she’s a student, she’s still learning”

“Some things are so basic they don’t have to be lear-”

“Ladies, you all done yet?” Barriss interrupted. “We’re T-minus one minute from landing, and the mission must go on. Ahsoka, if anyone asks, tell them you’re our intern and you just happen to be short. I don’t think anyone here can read your age from your lekku”

“What’s an intern?”

\---

“Passenger, please state your purpose of visit and send an identity”

The image of a woman hailing from Dathomir showed up on the checkpoint officer’s scanner. Nothing too fancy. Purpose of visit was to see a friend

Ventress started crunching on a fruit, waiting for the verification to be done with. She thought about the mission she was given: Observe what the rogue Mirialan Jedi was up to, any potential Separatist sympathies in her, and to kidnap her, and maybe even her own captives if possible. Not an easy feat, but whatever. Fighting that Jedi named Skywalker on the moon of Yavin was no easy feat either, yet she technically succeeded in that mission. She was already briefed on Unduli’s fighting style and personality, and had plenty of time in the past two days to run various scenarios in her mind

“Passenger, you may proceed. Welcome to Rokkalia”

Let’s get this bread, Ventress thought as she switched off the autopilot and made a beeline for the Capital District


	8. Trust in Ventress

_8 hours later_

Luminara looked at the mirror one last time. Clad in a blue cocktail dress, she had her normally hidden shoulder-length hair flowing freely around her head and thicker eyeliner applied. This was her standard outfit for formal events, both as and not as a Jedi representative. Now however, she was about to be wearing it for something…less than formal

She slipped on her pair of dress flats and left her apartment, all while completely unaware she was being watched. All she was aware of was that she had a chance to sway Adi and maybe even Stass against the war effort, and she had to jump on that with her own techniques

It had been a hard two weeks for her. First, the shock of learning the plan the Jedi Council was coming up with. Second, the sad realisation that was to be executed by Master Adi Gallia, her publicly best friend in the Order. Perhaps the Council believed Adi could sway Luminara against her people simply with her presence, or perhaps Adi did something against the Code and they wanted to punish her subtly like that

The third blow came after she leaked the plans to the MDF officers she was in touch with. She spent over an hour silently eavesdropping on them boasting about how they would beat and cut up the two Jedi, once they in their custody. The moment they mentioned rape, Luminara had enough and lashed out at them, scaring herself with her dark emotions while in her passionate efforts to defend her friends

Things had to be done, but compromises had to be made against her own people. Otherwise, the Mirialans were long done with playing nice. They were done 400 years ago, with them uniting for the first time as a single solar system and waging a brutal war on the Republic’s Outer Rim coloniser forces. Brutal not so much in the actual combat, but in how inhumanely they treated Republic POWs

Luminara knew her two friends were barely avoiding a world of pain, and her MDF partners were displeased with how she refused to punish the invaders just because she knew them

She set off in her airspeeder, and made a beeline through the morning rush hour to the detention centre, ignoring the rented airspeeder a hundred metres away that was had been parked for some time, yet its four passengers hadn’t disembarked

\---

Dangling her legs over the balcony parapet, the Sith Acolyte watched as the four Jedi slowly began to tail Unduli to the prison building. She had made note of the rogue Jedi’s new fancy dress code, pondering to herself as to what it could mean. Perhaps she intends to bring her captives before a Mirialan leader?

Ventress wiped her hands with the serviette that she got with her breakfast from a local cantina. I should come here more often, their food is too good, she thought, before jumping into her own rented airspeeder and taking off after them

\---

_20 minutes later_

The lights in the cell flashed on as the door was opened. The two Jedi were stirred awake, and the figure in the doorway simply stood still, waiting for them

“…Argh, I’m trying to sleep,” Stass complained

“Then go back to sleep, I’m going to take Adi for a chat,” Luminara replied

She rubbed her eyes and looked at her captor again. Gone were her usual Komatian ceremonial robes she wore as a Jedi, and in its place was a sleeveless knee-length dress and flowing hair dyed dark green. Stass, in her forty years, had never seen the Mirialan without her headdress, so this was something new to her. Adi, on the other hand, had, and she seemed to not care

“Taking me? Where to?” Adi mumbled

“Just put on the red dress and come with me. And no Stass, you’re staying here”

“The less I’m in contact with you, the better”

“Stass, please, what did I tell you?”

\---

“Look, she’s exiting the garage again,” Barriss commented, watching the blood orange airspeeder take off from the detention centre from a pair of holo-binoculars

“Wait…is that Master Gallia with her?” Anakin noted

“I can’t really tell; the windscreen is tinted. All I know is that I see a Tholothian headdress,” Obi-Wan quipped

From a balcony of a deserted floor of the skyscraper, the three Jedi spied upon the entrance of the short, dark facility. It was clear that much of the detention centre was underground, and why wouldn’t it be? Around its above-ground parts, broad trees covered the building with its rose-pink leaves, adding to the difficulty of spying on the occupants of the airspeeder

“Master’s not that close to Master Allie, so I doubt it’s her. I’m inclined to agree with Anakin,” Barriss commented again

“Then that’s it, we’re going,” Anakin decided. “Snips! We’re moving again!”

“Okay Master!” The young Togrutan was tasked to keep watch on the turbolift lobby, in case of someone unwanted going to their floor, so that she could alert the Jedi. Boring work, but Ahsoka had to learn to understand when to be involved and when to support

The four went to the opposite balcony where the rented speeder was parked, boarded and then took off after their quarry

\---

The holoprojector on Count Dooku’s desk in his command post on Raxus Secundus lit up. An image of Asajj Ventress bent a knee as she began her report to her master

“Master, I am tracking the rogue Jedi as you have instructed. It would seem that four other Jedi are also tracking her too. One of them is Skywalker, and I fear this complicates things”

“That should be of little concern. Use stealth and snatch your quarry when they have lowered their guard. Remember, their priority is taking the two prisoners. Your priority is Unduli. I don’t see why that should be a complication for you”

“I understand, Master. And I’m prepared to silence myself if things go to shit and the locals grab me”

“Good, my apprentice. Ping me again once your mission is accomplished”

“Yes, Master”

Dooku switched off his holoprojector, leaving Ventress to her own devices

Standing up from his desk, the Count of Serenno reflected on the situation. The war had been years in the planning, years of plotting and scheming to bring former foes together against a falling, twisted and corrupt Galactic Republic. His Sith master, Sidious, would run the show from the other side as Sheev Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. With the two Sith as head-of-states of the two warring entities, the Clone Wars would play out however they wished. Every battle and every outcome planned to the last detail, all pushing to the destructions of the ugly corruption of the old Republic and rebellious nature of the Separatists

And from its ashes, like a phoenix, a new state would be reborn. The cleansing fire of the Sith, to create an era of state-mandated peace and stability

One sliver of knowledge greatly troubled Dooku however: he knew that he was a great talker, but so was Palpatine. For the Sith to truly reign over the reborn Galactic state, Palpatine needed an apprentice who talks little but was powerful in combat and would serve as an enforcer. Dooku was neither, thanks to his old age and his only above-average Force potential, and he knew the ways of the Sith when it came to succession: death

It was no secret Palpatine intended for Anakin Skywalker to replace Dooku as his Sith apprentice. The Chosen One, and the most powerful Force user in the Galaxy, the one to restore balance to the Force. Too good an opportunity for Palpatine to ignore and just let slide, and once Skywalker was ready to become a Sith, Dooku would be a loose end by then. He couldn’t simply flee into exile and live quietly on Serenno: he had to be removed in the eyes of the public to grant legitimacy to the new state

Dooku knew the only way to avoid death was in overthrowing Sidious. He had not yet formulated a plan to do that legitimately yet, but he knew he had to think fast, and more importantly, find a worthy apprentice to fight alongside him. He drove his various Dark Side apprentices hard, pushing them to their very limits on his search for the best of the best. He knew that his apprentices were aware of his goals, and even had those who got comfortable with Sidious killed by one another. The witch from Dathomir was his best bet, and he had much trust in her abilities

Nonetheless, the idea of bringing another rogue Jedi in Unduli into his ranks was too good to pass up. If Ventress could drag a potentially rogue Gallia in as well, it would be all the better: the Jedi Order would flip their shit if they realised one of their own High Council members was with the enemy

For now, however, Dooku could only wait and see


	9. Now she'd seen everything

“We’re here!” Luminara exclaimed as she pulled over, taking Adi’s blindfold and handcuffs off

“I…huh? A garden?”

“You should catch some fresh air. I doubt you have in a few months already”

“Oh, come on Rara, you know I don’t coop myself up in the Temple all day!”

“Wasn’t literally, but whatever. Please step out, or do you need me to open the door for you?”

Adi turned around and opened the speeder’s door, stepping onto the dirt floor of the open-air parking lot. She took in the beauty of the place, amazed at how prim and proper everything had been done up. The last time she saw such flora was during a mission to Alderaan, almost twenty years prior

“So, what are we doing here?”

“Let’s just take in the sights and sound here. It’s a beautiful place and I like to take my family here when we have nothing else to do”

Luminara grabbed Adi by her wrist and tugged her along. Within a few minutes, they were deeper into the lush and colourful vegetation of the likes that Adi had never even seen anywhere. The aroma of flowers and garden insects left her, strangely, yearning for more…

\---

“That’s a weird place to take a prisoner to,” Ahsoka commented

“No, I think I know exactly what she is up to. Master Luminara once told me that it easier to pull information out of someone by appearing as a friend, not an enemy. Master Kenobi can testify to that, right? “The Negotiator”, so they call you,” Barriss commented

“I prefer to talk on equal levels”

“But it gets better,” Barriss continued as she passed her binoculars around. “See that giant red worm? That’s a West Komatia millipede. Its aroma is addictive, and it wears away at the will of those who go near it. Much of the flora and fauna in this garden has the same effect. There’s a reason why this garden is owned by the MDF. I just hope Master Gallia can sense this”

“But what would Luminara gain from that? She’s clearly not looking for information”

“I think she’s trying to sway Master Gallia into turning against the Republic. The more allies she has in her pockets, the harder it is for the High Council to ignore her demands. Especially if one of them is a Council member,” Anakin concluded

“Adi is not one to be swayed so easily. Yeah, she might have friction with the rest of the Council, but she won’t betray us so quick. Master Qui-Gon could never betray the Order either, no matter his grievances with them, and she is no different. She’s a fighter, and she knows the stakes here,” Obi-Wan insisted

“I can’t imagine a Council Master being so easily swayed!” Ahsoka added

Anakin subtly gave an annoyed look at his Padawan again

\---

“…I could come here more often…” Adi was feeling the rush from the overwhelming aroma around the garden

“…yeah, you could. But maybe you should spend more time in Tholoth. Your people need you more,” Luminara began to lie her head on Adi’s lap, the duo taking shelter under the lilac canopy of a small tree, the scent putting both into a slight trance

“…why? My people are doing fine, and I am needed elsewhere in the Republic. We aren’t under harassment by the Separatists,” Adi began to lean back and settle herself on the tree trunk

“…oh, but what about by your own allies?”

“…bishhh, we don’t get the short end of the stick”

“…say that again…?”

“…Tholoth is nearer to the Core than Mirial…we are a member of the Republic because we don’t fear them as you do, because we have no reason to. They don’t harass us for anything”

“…for now…”

“…Rara, you’re making it too obvious…any Youngling could tell what you’re trying to do. I can tell what this aroma is doing to me”

“…why should I hide my intents, Adi? Why should I hide what I’ve always believed in? Why should I hide my desire to help the Force bring equality to the various races of this galaxy?”

“…the galaxy isn’t an equal place. You know it, I know it, the rest of the Order knows it…it’s a sick fucking joke but we are just one organisation amongst millions. We can only go so far to bring balance to the Force, and we have to let other groups have their say. We don’t own the Republic; the Republic owns us. Some parts of the status quo, you just have to accept and move on…”

“Not if I can make a difference,” Luminara sat up

“…how much of a difference can you make all by yourself? To a dozen people?”

“…at least I made a difference to someone!”

The two fell silent again, having let out their frustrations. And that was all Luminara needed, what she truly intended. She didn’t want to hear it, but she now had confirmation that much of the Jedi Order had given up trying to truly make a difference in the galaxy, despite their unique Force powers and foresights. All they did, for lack of a better phrasing, was to suck off the status quo of the Republic. She thought of the Jedi of the Old Republic, in the days of the crises created by rogue Jedi like Exar Kun and Darth Revan, and how the Old Order fought valiantly to restore peace to a galaxy that didn’t deserve them

She thought about General Grievous, and recalled her shock as she learnt his history through the HoloNet, of how the Kaleesh people were fighting a defensive war against the invading Yam’rii people. The Yam’rii senator had a better support base in the Galactic Senate than the Kaleesh one, and it ended with the Jedi aiding the Yam’rii to overrun the exhausted Kaleesh, on behalf of the Republic. Needless to say, the cyborg general’s anger and vengeance consumed him, and he dedicated himself to any causes opposing the Republic and the Jedi

The Jedi had historically tended to create their worst enemies. However, unlike back then, the present Order didn’t actively try to stop these threats unless the Republic told them to, and not because the Force guided them to bring balance

How far had the Order she swore her life to had fallen! All this information was accessible to every Jedi, but no one could, or would, listen to that. She never wanted to hurt any of her friends: all she wanted was to serve a better Jedi Order!

“…honestly, Rara, I don’t want to talk about these kinds of things. Just let your people have their way with me, and let my cousin go…if the Republic decides to brand your people as terrorists, then say goodbye to any negotiation”

Luminara simply sat up, and wordlessly grabbed Adi by her chin

“May I?”

“Urgh, go ahead, I was waiting for this to happen one day”

Luminara planted her lips onto Adi’s, as she let go of her chin and planted both her hands around the nape of Adi’s neck. The two began to make out as they fell back into a lying position, and Adi gave in to her instincts, grabbing Luminara around her waist and nape too. The duo let their tongues dance around each other, embracing within and out, closing their eyes and letting love overwhelm them

Adi had long sensed that Luminara had a crush on her. She couldn’t explain it, she just could sense Luminara’s emotions better than even her own Padawan’s or cousin’s. But she’d always thought it was a one-way thing. Adi wouldn’t admit even to herself that she’d break the Code like this…what would Qui-Gon, the one who had always affirmed her doubts in the Council, think?

As their lips parted, Luminara began to pour her heart out

“I’d never let my people have their way with you. Ever. Even if you want it. Which you won’t. If I’m willing to betray the Republic for them, I’d betray them for you…”

“…and where will this endless backstabbing take you, Rara? Down a spiral of flimsy attachments and burnt bridges? Down the Dark Side?”

“…what’s so bad about that?”

\---

Ventress couldn’t decide if she should be laughing or crying

Jedi making out in public? Now she’d seen everything

Leaning out of her airspeeder that had been parked in mid-air, she spied down upon the six Jedi below her. Today was day one of spying on those idiots. She needed another couple of days to fully observe a pattern in all of them before she could make her move


	10. Do we have a choice?

_Three days later_

The ping on the holoprojector woke Anakin up. He went over to the dining table and received the call, as an image of Luminara visualised

“Hello Anakin. How’s the view from the ship?”

“Luminara,” He hissed at her. The mental image of her forcing herself onto Adi had barely faded from his mind. He had to resist every fibre in his being to call her out for that act, for it would reveal their presence. “What do you want?”

“Just wanted to chat. Maybe with Obi-Wan too, just for old ti-”

“Man, shut the hell up. You think this is funny?”

“I do. And I’m tired of pretending it’s not”

“You have a death wish, don’t you?”

“Kinda, kinda not. I’m not prepared to die, if I must confes-hey WHAT…who-”

The holoprojector simply displayed Luminara being shoved off the screen by a masked shape. The sounds of lightsabres igniting was next

\---

_Sixty minutes earlier_

It wasn’t easy, neither was it glamourous, but no one told Ventress it would be either, as she walked into the turbolift lobby of the condominium, dressed as a dirty electrician…they still had people doing droid work on this planet? Maybe Mirial wasn’t the super-state everyone made it out to be

Smearing a bit of grease here and there on her face did help to mask her tattoos, and raised no “eyebrows” from the security droids. She boarded the turbolift to the 67th floor, and took a left turn into the same apartment that she’d been spying on for the past 3 standard days. Having a floor plan of the building merely expedited her search by about 10 seconds, as she fired the electronic jammer that left the floor security holocams on loop, before walking over to Unduli’s front door, putting down her tool bag right outside

Within 15 seconds, the electronic lock popped, and she was in. It was almost as if that silly lady _wanted_ to have her house broken into, with a lock that easy to hack into. Then again, Jedi in their quarters in the Temple never did lock their doors ever, so why should this be any different?

It was too easy, and Ventress almost sensed a trap. Only the Dark Side would guide her sixth sense around the apartment, lest she tripped a silent alarm or ended up under a heavy pile of rocks

…nope, nothing. The Force was with her. She slipped out of the disgusting disguise, and from her bag, pulled out a more familiar outfit: a long sleeved skin-tight grey blouse with a waist-cape tied to it, black shorts and thigh-high boots. She felt no alacrity slipping into her combat outfit and cleaning her face: her prey had too predictable a pattern. Always arriving exactly half an hour past midnight, she wouldn’t be back for another fifteen minutes, more than enough for Ventress to find a hiding place and start masking her Force signature

Three days of boring field work had led to this. She had long concluded that trying to pull the Tholothian out was a tall order: the MDF didn’t mess around when it came to security. The rogue Jedi, on the other hand, absolutely did. Besides, she could cause way more tensions between the Mirialans and the Republic by kidnapping a Mirialan heroine, rather than some prisoner

\---

_Fifteen minutes later_

Home sweet home, Luminara thought to herself as she stepped through the door. Yet another long day of talking more crap with the MDF commanders and listening in on Stass talking more crap ‘bout her

She continued lamenting in her mind as she went straight for the bathroom, slipping out of her dress as she did, completely unaware she was giving a little striptease to an unwanted visitor. All she cared about was a warm shower and some nice hot soup, the same kind Barriss used to make for her, back when she had a brief infatuation with all things culinary

The masked figure in the wardrobe simply bided its time

\---

_Forty minutes later_

The soup tasted nothing like what Barriss made. Even if her Padawan was using canned food and a microwave oven, it still tasted better than…whatever she tried to poison herself with

She laughed to the empty apartment, and her Padawan might have if this was any other day

Forcing the last morsel of soup on herself, she cleaned up and decided to ping a certain angry Jedi Knight for a chat, not realising he was in the exact same time zone as her: in fact, their motel room was just half a kilometre away

Changing back into her usual robes and makeup, she fired up the holoprojector

And that was all the distraction Ventress needed. It was risky, picking off her prey right when there was a witness, but she could always hang up the call with her foot…and then seeing the young Jedi who sent her plunging into that ravine on Yavin show up on the screen, she decided on something else

\---

The sounds of clanging, shattering and swinging lightsabres from the holoprojector attracted Ahsoka beside Anakin, who was yelling Luminara’s name into nothing. She was no doubt interested to know what was the ruckus that woke her up from a beautiful dream of a picnic with Master Plo Koon

“Skyguy, what’s going on?”

“Master Luminara tried to call and suddenly, she got jumped!”

“She had it coming, I guess”

“You’re lucky Barriss is outside on spy duty,” Obi-Wan’s voice came from behind, no doubt having been jolted out of his meditation. “She would have killed you on the spot for that. And Anakin, did you see who jumped Luminara?”

“No, that thing was masked!”

The sounds of fighting ebbed, and the masked figure came into view of the screen

“I bet you don’t remember me, Skywalker. My left wrist is still sore,” Ventress sneered as she peeled off her mask

“YOU!”

“Yes, me. Me, me, me-”

“I’m going to make you regre-”

“-and don’t bother trying to rescue little Rara here. By the time you’ve reached your airspeeder on the balcony, I’d be halfway to the shield gate with my prize!”

It then occurred to the trio that they weren’t the only ones watching others this whole time

“And that’s a cute Padawan you have, Skywalker. I’d love her as my apprentice”

Before Ahsoka could snap back, the projector went dead, even as Anakin began to make for the room door

\---

Ventress began dragging her trophy towards the window. Outside, the Fanblade Fighter was streaking towards the rendezvous at break-neck speed on autopilot. Even as she Force blasted out the windows, the red cockpit was already opening up, along with the cargo hatch behind. As she hauled Unduli into the hold, she took one last good look at her handiwork: the Mirialan heroine knocked unconscious, with her dress badly torn up, exposing her slender, stocking clad legs and equally slender arms. She was slightly surprised at how Unduli could maintain such a figure at 35 years of age

The hatch shut on its new cargo, as the cockpit shut on its familiar pilot. The vessel began streaking skyward towards the shield gate, leaving the four hapless Jedi barely in their airspeeder that could neither catch up in speed or altitude

\---

“How! Am I! This! Blind!” Barriss was hardly holding back her tears of rage, unable to comprehend how she’d missed the intruder despite being so damn attentive to her master’s apartment

“Enough’s enough,” Anakin was equally tilted, but more at the re-emergence of an old foe that drove him crazy. And he’d long realised what the duel on Yavin had did to his Force balance. “Master, when the MDF find their girl gone, they’ll point fingers at the Republic. We’d be trapped when they close the gate in the morning, and Master Gallia and Master Allie will return to the Temple in twenty different boxes”

“You really want to move on them now? We’ll have to go loud: our plans of the detention centre’s secret passages are only halfway done,” Obi-Wan was beginning to take off the airspeeder

“Do we have a choice, Master Kenobi?” Barriss exclaimed. This was getting worse every minute

“Guys, please, we gotta trust the Force to guide us through the unknown. We can’t knock on their doors, I don’t think we have the numbers to bash through,” Ahsoka tried talking sense to her seniors

“Finally, a good idea from Snips. And that is something I’d do too”

“Me too, Master Kenobi”

“Then that’s it then,” Obi-Wan declared. “Let’s be quick”

The airspeeder first headed towards Luminara’s apartment

\---

_One hour later_

The sun was bright

Really bright

I like staring at it, Adi thought to herself

The lilac leaves of the garden started to wash up in the wind, and they began to circle around her in the breeze

Her skin felt tingly with the petals caressing her face lovingly...petals or leaves? They were whatever she wanted them to be. She had this beautiful world to herself, savouring the colours and distracting her from the coldness that was the reality

The sensations were so soft, she could almost make a mattress out of that and meditate upon it forever

“Adi…” came a distant voice

“…hey, you’re finally awake”

“I’m lucid dreaming, don’t disturb me, Stass”

Adi took a slap to her face

A figure in a cowl loomed over her

“Wakey wakey, Masters,” came the familiar voice of Luminara’s Padawan. “We came to rescue you so that we can all rescue her”

“Huh? What?” Stass Allie was woken from her sleep as she felt something slash her Force blocking collar off. “Rescue who?”

Alarms in the corridor started blaring, as red strobe lights started flashing around

“We’ll explain soon,” Obi-Wan called from behind. “For now, take these”

Luminara’s twin lightsabres landed on the bed before the two cousins. Pretty fortunate that unlike Grievous, Ventress had no interest in stealing lightsabres


	11. Run

“Intruder alert! All personnel to man all the exits and the perimeter!”

MDF military police officers were rushing around the detention centre, blaster rifles in hand, most following the instructions in the announcement, but a few peeling off to head towards the one location that had triggered the alarm: the cell holding the two Republic prisoners. No, be to more precise, the cell door itself

The six Jedi dashed out from the hole that was cut into the door, sabres ablaze. After sneaking around the ventilation shafts and maintenance hallways of the facility, the initial intruders discovered that there was no gap wide enough for a single person to slip in and out of cells, for obvious reasons. Knowing they were short on time, they opted to emerge in the corridor just outside the cell with the strongest Force signature and cut through the door, rather than tunnel between the shafts and the cell and potentially trigger an alarm anyway. And that was what they did, as Stass acknowledged how clean the cut to the door was done. By Kenobi? Or maybe by Skywalker? Didn’t matter, they had to leave

The six of them hopped a grating that was left hanging halfway open. No doubt the result of having four people push it open from the inside. Anakin was first in, taking the lead, followed by the four ladies, and Obi-Wan to cover the rear. They worked fast, trying to get in and replace the grating before anyone would notice their path of exit and begin to pinpoint them. No doubt, the alarm system would already have identified which door was the trigger, and they were actually surprised it took a minute after Anakin started to break in before all hell broke loose

And of course, their plan of stealth was ruined

Well, almost

A lone trooper who had been running ahead of his group came face-to-face with Obi-Wan, just as he was about to replace the grating. The trooper took a pot-shot of a stun bolt at Obi-Wan, who effortlessly returned it to its sender. Knocking that trooper out and thus keeping them from nailing which of the backrooms that the intruders were fleeing through would buy them a few extra minutes, minutes which the MDF could use trap them there, or to close the shield gates

The six of them wordlessly ran through the exact same path that they’d come by. Through the thin walls of the shafts, they could hear various troopers around them running and cursing frantically, no doubt realising exactly which prisoners had gone missing and who could be the only people responsible for that. Many of them were already calling their higher-ups on their comms, which worked to the advantage of the Jedi, since the MDF commanders would be quickly overwhelmed by a tidal wave of comms, slowing down the process of reaching whoever was in charge of the shield gates or even the local patrols

Crawling into a wider shaft, they then stood up and crossed into another maintenance passageway. It was at that moment when they discovered the vents in the passage began to seep out a greyish gas

Sleeping gas, no doubt. Not that it was something to flush them out, but it was quite the annoyance having to divert their Force powers towards protecting their lungs. It was fortunate that they were running through the passages based on memory, not on Force-perception to predict pathways, or they'd be in the blind

The lot of them weaved through, changing passages. There were automatic fire shutters located throughout the passages that could box in any other intruder, but the Jedi simple held them up with the Force, and in doing so prevented more damage alarms from being triggered

Within 5 minutes, the lot reached the last of the shafts that would take them out of the perimeter of the building...and blast. A heavy shutter had fallen over the passage

It was a narrow passage, and the Jedi were all forced to arrange themselves into a single file. That meant only the leader could use the Force to jimmie the door open...but hey, it was Anakin Skywalker, why would that be an issue

Summoning the Living Force, Anakin felt the molecules around him begin to bend to his will, as he reached out for the shutter, and…

Nothing. The shutter wouldn't budge at all

No wonder, it was a security shutter, not a mere fire divider, and it probably had a sort of auto-latch. Anakin gave another go and it shifted slightly but…barely anything

"Hurry, Anakin, I can sense them coming," Adi was beginning to feel the pressure

"I need more time to open it!"

"Can't we just blow the door open; we don't have that time!" Stass added

"We're gonna alert them, y'know"

"Then leave this to me!" Came the youngest voice

Before anyone could stop her, Ahsoka leaped her small frame over Anakin and jammed her lightsabre right into the door, before igniting it. The green plasma ate through the durasteel easily and she began to pull the sabre up to create a hole in it

"Dammit, Snips"

"You call that girl "Snips"?"

\---

"Commander! We're receiving a detection of a breach! Perimeter underground shutter at grid Zerek-5!" One of the security room troopers exclaimed excitedly

"Come again, shutter Zerek-5? That's Vent 5!"

"Affirmative, Sir!"

"Send a strike team to wherever it surfaces then! I'll keep trying to get in contact with the rest of my side!"

"On it, Sir!

As the commander left the trooper to her own devices, he reached for his comms

"Captain, this is Commander Salini. We have confirmation that our intruders and escapees are to emerge from the street ventilator connected to vent 5. We're sending a strike team to surround that. What's your status on Ms Unduli, over?"

"Still nothing, Commander. We have sent troopers down to her house to check on her. It's not in her to ignore these many pings, over"

"Well, something seems off indeed, over"

"Yes, and I-wait! They just reached her apartment and...someone broke into the place! And she's missing!"

"Blast! So, the intruders must have been Jedi, Captain! They must have kidnapped her up first and then our prisoners!"

"Are you sure?"

"Ms Unduli is still one of them, and so are our prisoners. There are no two ways around this, over!"

"Shit, you're right…what's next, Commander?"

"...I need time to think, over"

\---

"There're at least fifty of them surrounding this structure," Adi commented as she reached into the Force, guiding her to the lifeforms surrounding the same little concrete shack that her rescuers had entered by initially

"Ah, same shit, different day," Stass grumbled

"We'll have to combine our strength then," Obi-Wan suggested. "We'll all Force blast this structure together. Then debris will distract them enough for us to clear the distance to the ship"

"Deal"

"Alright"

On the count of 3, the six of them sent the entire structure flying. Chunks of concrete and durasteel rods flew through the air like slugs out of twenty scatterguns pointed every-what-where. Some of the troopers around the structure were caught by the blast or the debris and were sent flying. Those less unfortunate had barely enough time to duck under whatever cover they were using in the first place

As the dust settled, the first of the troopers cleared the dust from their goggles, only to see 6 figures dashing at inhuman speed towards an open-air ship pad on the opposite side of the roadway

And that was the MDF's mistake: they should have disabled every space worthy ship in the nearby vicinity, knowing that the Jedi were going to flee fast

As more and more of the troopers began to stand up, the seemingly ordinary looking yellow freighter that had been sitting idly on one of the pads fired up her sub-light engines and began to take off

Even without receiving a green light, the troopers began to open fire on the vessel

\---

"Alright, let's hope this booster was worth what we paid for," Anakin commented as he tapped on a display panel

Immediately, the ship lurched forward, its momentum dampeners hardly able to keep up with the sudden acceleration. The engine boosters kicked in and launched the ship into speeds that no one would have expected from such a plain looking vessel

"So, err, what rescue are we on about?" Stass continued the question from earlier

"Master Luminara. She got picked up by a Separatist agent," Barriss started

"She joined them?!"

"No, kidnapped"

Before any further questions could be thrown, they were rudely interrupted by the presence of MDF gunboats tailing closely behind the Jedi's vessel. They however hadn't started opening fire on them

The holoprojector on the ship's dashboard sprung to life

"This is Governor Ferrousia speaking. Surrender now and release Luminara, or we'll drag you back to the ground"

"Master Luminara got kidnapped by Separatists! You have to let us go rescue her, we're your only hope for that!" Ahsoka blurted out before anyone could stop her

There was a pause. Then the holoprojector went dead, and Ahsoka knew she fucked up

The tailing gunboats fell back slightly, even as they opened up their gunports at the knowledge that there were no hostages on board the enemy vessel

Anakin said nothing. He simply gripped the steering column of the vessel tighter, preparing to take evasive manoeuvres as he had done many times by this time in the War. Then came laser fire from behind, and the Jedi on board held tight as the vessel spun around, ducking the shots. The MDF had no intents of taking prisoners

More gunboats started catching up to the vessel. Evading the barrage of fire became increasingly harder, even for the Republic's best pilot. The situation was quickly deteriorating, until Adi wordlessly stood up from her seat

“Adi, where are you going to?” her cousin asked

“I’m going to jump out and onto one of those boats, then shoot at the other boats. And then make it out of the shield with this ship”

“Master Gallia, aren’t you the one who has the closest Force connection with Luminara out of all of us? We need you to be the one to sense where that dark warrior carried her to,” Obi-Wan pointed out

“Shit, you’re right”

“Adi, I’ll go then,” Stass volunteered

“You aren’t that good of a pilot to nail them and keep up”

“There’s no other choice!”

Before Adi could object again, Stass threw the half of Luminara’s lightsabres she held to Adi, ran from the cockpit and into the rear cargo door, barely keeping her feet planted on the spinning vessel. She reached the rear door and opened it, opening the cargo hold to the stratosphere around them as they passed the 20km altitude mark

The Force is with me, she muttered to herself and took a leap of faith, closing her eyes and letting herself sense the surroundings as she fell from the hold, feeling herself get closer and closer towards one of the gunboats, as it began to pull up to train its guns on her and…

She hit the glass bubble of the cockpit, grabbing onto the edge. The pilot inside tried to spin the ship to shake off the Jedi, but she used the Force to stop the control surfaces before forcing the glass bubble open, dragging the pilot out and settling herself inside, all in a span of five seconds. The remainder of the gunboats seemed oblivious to what was happening

Stass shut the cockpit and pulled back, before lurching to the left and letting loose on the laser cannons, shooting off the engines from the boat that was putting the most pressure on the ship. Again, and again she did this, knocking out 4 more boats before the rest realised what was going on, and began to switch targets to this new threat…if only the MDF had remote disabling on their vessels

The cargo freighter was in the clear, they crossed through the mesosphere fast and were on the home stretch towards the shield gate…now would they be fast enough to beat the door?


	12. Enjoying this, aren’t you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ik that there's an M rating, but readers' discretion for this chapter

_30 minutes earlier_

“Wake up…WAKE UP!”

Luminara was awoken by icy water splashed on her face

“How’s the ride?” an unknown voice came from far away

“…who…who are you?”

“Let me just warm you up for what you can expect for the next few days”

At first, she felt nothing. Then she felt everything, as potent electricity from an electrostaff coursed through her body and zapped her hard, which would have otherwise sent her collapsing onto the ground…but nothing…as the current stopped, Luminara realised she awoke, and was still, in an upright position. She felt her arms and legs in a spreadeagle, with a blue hue of a containment field surrounding her, blocking off the Force from her and leaving her trapped firmly by floating manacles on her wrists and ankles…yep, the classic Jedi restraints

Before her, a thin, pale skinned and bald-headed woman paced around her with a menacing smirk on her face

“You know, I used to leave these kinds of things to the rest of the Separatists, but what I discovered was that most of them did their shit on very backwater worlds. They had some of the worst power grids I’ve seen, and I’ve stayed on that shithole known as Rattatak half my life! You could flip the switch, but nothing would come on for hours on end. And then my temper would get short and I would take over the session, and resort to things like pulling teeth and splashing liquid nitrogen. And then, the whole idea of interrogation would become just entertainment for me”

Luminara didn’t respond. She just gave a blank stare and was barely listening

“But this right here is proper equipment! I don’t cut costs! Here, I can switch on my staff, dry-fry your arm and feed it to you for dinner”

As Luminara started to turn her head around, she saw herself inside a small room in space, on board a ship of sorts. As she peered back, she could make out the familiar pair of blue-and-beige marbles outside the vessel’s windows

“Don’t bother hoping your Defense Forces can find you. This vessel looks like any other cargo ship and no one would think of searching it”

“What are you trying to do, use me to make my people join the Seppies?”

“No, worse than that. But I hate having nice stories spoilt for me, so why should I spoil the fun for you? You’ll find out…”

Another zap sent Luminara wincing, as she clenched her jaw tight…

\---

_Present time_

Stass was barely holding the gunboat steady, as more and more of them converged upon the boat, chipping off at its wings and control surfaces and slowing it down

She watched as the yellow freighter weaved itself through the maze of turbolaser fire from the shield gate, avoiding every last one of them. It approached the gate, and closer, and…

The gate closed

She couldn’t believe it: they were all trapped

It was all for nothing

Nothing?

No, wait, why did their Force signatures drop so suddenly? She reached into the Force, only to feel a wall between herself and them

That was the only answer she needed

She let the Force decide her fate as she pulled down on the gunboat, just as her starboard engine caught a round of laser fire and began to burn up. The vessel began to lurch down and nosedive, while its pilot pondered as to why would they be trying to save a traitor

\---

“We gotta jump to hyperspace! Now!” Anakin yelled

“No, no, give me more time…” Adi had her eyes shut and her arms outstretched into the Force

…pain…she felt pain…and anguish…and distracting thoughts

But from where?

The impact from a turbolaser glancing off the vessel barely pulled Adi from her thoughts, as she gave in fully to the Force and felt herself looking at her friend. Just needed to know where

Where…

Where? What? What did it look like? The ship

Adi opened her eyes and saw the Fanblade Fighter docking with a non-descript grey cargo vessel. She saw a Dathomirian woman open a cargo hatch in the cockpit, using her hand to sweep away the sleeping gas that was constantly pumped into the hold, and dragging Luminara out and into the arms of B1 battle droids

The vessel idled there for a few minutes, before it lurched into hyperspace

And she felt it emerging somewhere nearby, no more than half an hour’s travel away

“We must go!”

“I found it! Go to this location!” Adi yelled as she ran to the nav computer and keyed in a string of coordinates that was about fifteen light-years away

Anakin floored the vessel, and the five of them watched as the starlight around them warped while they crossed into the safety of the hyperspace dimension

For now

\---

_At the same time…_

The mirror was dragged before the Mirialan

“Like what you see?” Ventress gleefully taunted as the ship dropped out of hyperspace

Luminara briefly snapped out of her daydream and gazed on the awful sight before her: her robes had been torn up even more than before, leaving her arms, midriff and much of her stocking-clad legs exposed. Even parts of her stockings were ripped where the staff had previously struck her and fried the sheer nylon

She could also make out bruises on her right eye and her lips, where Ventress had struck her with bare fists. And she knew she was just getting started. Good for her that she had been trained above the norm for dealing with torture

She forced her senses back into a state of daydream, as she saw the cold walls of the vessel around her fade into a dull white ceiling, before it too faded into complete darkness as she imagined Barriss and Twi’lek Jedi Knight Aayla Secura binding a blindfold on her

Her other senses became warped too, as the taste of blood in her mouth slowly was replaced by a tasteless silicone ball that was jammed into her mouth, with familiar hands buckling a leather strap behind her head, keeping her from spitting the gag out

Everything around her body shifted too, with the floating durasteel manacles becoming soft silk ropes that bound her spreadeagle onto carpeted floor, with a warm beach towel under her body. Her torn-up robes got thinner and tighter as they became a set of orange silk lingerie, which left her imaginary self as exposed to her friends as did her real self to this witch

Ventress rounded around Luminara and prodded her on the waist, eliciting involuntary spasms. What Luminara felt instead were teasing fingers jabbing her on her waist and tickling her lovingly, as she struggled around the sensations. She tried to laugh, but the ball gag only distorted her speech and made her spit drool out

Was she screaming in real life too? Don’t know, why would that matter? Imaginary Aayla began to tickle her on her exposed armpits, and her struggles turned into thrashing, fruitlessly trying to get away from the playful torment. As she shook her ever-reddening face around, she felt only more drool fly from her mouth. Aayla seemed to pause briefly, as if to wipe the drool off, before resuming the torment by drawing circles with her fingers on both Luminara’s armpit and hips, just below where Barriss was still jabbing her relentlessly. She could hear the two of them giggling at her helpless state, and she was loving every second of it

Ventress saw none of that. All she saw was a Mirialan woman wincing and tearing up from the electrocution, her face seemingly blushing from the abuse. That prompted Ventress to pause a second

“Enjoying this, aren’t you, Jedi scum?”

“Enjoying this, aren’t you, Master?”

Luminara meekly nodded in her dream. The sensations in her mind overwhelmed her. The fake tickling continued even as the electrocution stopped. Barriss and Aayla continued to torment her, and she relentlessly laughed her drool out and-

A sudden jolt of intense pain woke Luminara up from her deep daydream. Ventress had swung the electrostaff up between her legs, zapping her right at her femininity. She howled and screamed

“You really do enjoy this! Say yes for me”

“…”

The electrostaff was swung up again, this time being held up against her crotch. Again, she resumed her screaming, trying to get away from it. She buckled and shuddered, the sensation turning into blunt, rusty knives carving up her skin and every fibre of her nerves. The electricity began to burn her underwear off, leaving her completely exposed to the fire. By that point, it hardly made a difference; all she felt was pain

“Yes, scream for me!” Ventress laughed as she pulled the staff back and forth before switching it off. She looked upon where the staff was still lifting Luminara’s torn dress, gazing upon how red her lips had turned. “You look so turned on! That’s not the Jedi way”

“…fuck you. Fuck you…” Luminara sobbed

Ventress withdrew the staff and tossed it on the ground. She turned around and proceeded towards a small box on a nearby table, grabbing something out, something that Luminara couldn’t make through her tears


	13. As she simmered down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ik that there's an M rating, but readers' discretion for this chapter

The mob of Mirialans dragged a dazed Stass Allie out of the crashed gunboat, beating her senseless even before a shock collar was put on her…

…and that was all Adi could see. Between the pain felt by her friend and the pain felt by her cousin, she began to feel her head spin. She was struggling to keep her fears from overwhelming her meditation, and it felt nothing like what she had been trained for, nothing like what she had experienced in the past. She reached out again and once again, felt fear in the High Council. It had been going on for some time already…what could be it?

\---

The holoprojection of an unconscious Allie being thrown onto the ground was the first thing that the High Council saw when they picked up the ping from Adi’s comms

“So, Jedi, how many pieces would you like us to return this harlot in?”

“Who are you?” Windu demanded

“Master Jedi, it matters not who I am,” Ferrousia stepped into the projection. “Only matters who _we_ are”

“Then name your demands, and don’t hurt her,” Shaak Ti appealed

“Shut up and listen then. Luminara was just kidnapped, and we know you all had something to do with it. Give her back, and never bother us again”

“We did _not_ send anyone to your world to kidnap her, the Separatists did,” Saesee Tiin half-lied. “We were only there to take what you took from us”

“And they came into our backyard. Our world, our rules. All we ever wanted was tolerance and co-operation with the Republic, especially after the shitshow 400 years ago. If you were concerned with the Separatists forcing us to side with them, just remember after the humiliation of twenty years ago, we are more than willing to scorch the earth! You should have known your place and stayed out of this. But, if it’s any gratitude from us, at least you helped us weed out the traitors”

“We hear you. And there already are Jedi going to help Luminara. So please, don’t do anything rash. We will make sure your demands of a non-aggression pact are seen to”

“You’d be wise not to call us rash. Not after what you all have done. Each day we don’t see Luminara is one more piece we cut this woman into”

The line from the comms was cut

“We need to update the five of them of the urgency of this,” Windu decided

“Make them more impatient and rasher, I fear that will. Know what they are doing, they certainly are,” Yoda pointed out

“It’s hard to tell, Master Yoda. Hard to tell…”

\---

“So, while I was hiding in your house, I found this. Yours, I assume”

Through teary eyes, Luminara saw something that made her face go completely red in embarrassment: an egg-shaped purple vibrator, with a matching purple wire and controller box. Her personal bit of fun on lonely days, and something she definitely did not want _anyone_ finding about

“Ah, yes. It really is yours. And hmm, last time you used it, you set it to the “tease” setting. Mind enlightening me on it?

“…”

“No? Let’s find out then!” Ventress gleefully called, knowing in the back of her head what it probably would do

Sliding the vibrator inside Luminara, Ventress let her fingers feel their way up to the most sensitive spot, taking her time to find her way around. All this time, Luminara couldn’t help but feel aroused by the finger rape, even with the pain caused by contact on her burnt skin, and this only made her angry and unable to distract herself as it happened

When it was done, Ventress withdrew her now wet and sticky fingers, standing up and wiping the nectar on the owner’s face. Luminara’s face was too red to blush any further, but she did attempt to turn her head about in a vain attempt to avoid the sweet liquid. As she did, she could barely make out, through the torture chamber’s windows, that the ship dropped out of hyperspace… waiting for the Separatists?

Ventress bent down again, Force-pulling a roll of construction tape to her hands. She peeled off a silver strip and pasted it around Luminara’s crotch, sealing the vibrator in place. She then took the controller and taped it to her right leg, before activating the device

At once, Luminara rolled her eyes up as she took in the vibrations inside her hips. The tingling pain turned into unbridled pleasure, and she forgot all thoughts of trying to daydream anymore. She simply let her jaw hang loose and twisted her hips around slightly, trying to let the pleasure get to her

Ventress thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle of a Jedi giving in to her most primal desires. She even felt slightly turned on by the sounds of her captive’s moaning and her expressions of pure pleasure. This was fast becoming her favourite torture session, even more so than the time where she kidnapped a pair of Republic ensigns, and stuck one of their arms into liquid nitrogen. Pulling his frozen arm out, she stomped on it and laughed as it shattered like porcelain. She then stabbed the other ensign with a pair of knives and electrocuted her through those, which was when the male ensign finally broke and gave up the location of a hidden Republic ship repair station

This time however, she didn’t need to dispose of her toy, she could keep the torture going on for as long as she wanted. Or Dooku wanted, but whatever. It was then her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Luminara moaning even louder…yes, she was approaching her climax, giving in to her pent-up sexual frustrations

And just as she was on the edge, the vibrator shut itself off. The microchip inside was built to detect when the wearer was reaching the tipping point and switch off when on teasing mode. The denial struck her like a hammer, and she grimaced, utterly frustrated. Her struggling resumed, trying to shake the egg inside her against herself, trying to rub her clitoris just enough to tip her over the edge…nothing. Her favourite toy was fast becoming a nightmare

“Ahahaha, I guessed right. So, this is what you do on quiet nights hmm?” Ventress got up from her seat and caressed Luminara under her chin. “How many other Jedi do this too? How often do you guys have trysts with each other?”

“Shut…shut…ahhh…the…hell…up!” She was panting as she simmered down

“Must be really hard work to clean up every night, eh?”

Luminara would reply but the vibrator kicked in again, leaving her unable to string anything coherent. A pair of tear streams merged with the river of drool pouring from her open jaw, which Ventress gratuitously licked up and spat back on her prisoner

“I’ll be back in a minute. You have fun like you do every night” Ventress yanked off Luminara’s headdress, then turned around and exited from the room, leaving the battered and desperate Jedi locked up in the containment field

\---

_Fifteen minutes later_

“Can’t this ship go faster?”

“Master Gallia, we can’t rush the ship”

“Whatever, Ahsoka. I feel great anguish in Luminara. They must be trying to turn her to the Dark Side. We don’t have all day to do this”

Adi shut her eyes again, trying to resume her meditation

“And we do this fast not just to save Rara, but Stass too. They aren’t being held back by her”

“Held back?” Ahsoka had a faint memory of Luminara’s warning to the Council. “Is this to do with something about them not playing nice?”

“Do you recall when I was about to go on how I did not want to be captured by Rokkalians?” Barriss questioned. “Although maybe I shouldn’t talk about that, so as to not add more fear to Master Gallia”

“Shoot, Barriss. I’m not listening,” Adi mumbled aloud as she left the cockpit

As the door shut, Barriss began her tale

“It was the age of unification, 15000 years ago, before Mirial had hyperspace travel. You see, Vaylaan and Rokkalia had long known each other to be inhabited by other beings. We could sense the spirits of each other, beings on two planets that evolved as one species. We had finally launched spaceships to each other to set foot and formalise friendships. Unfortunately, over the next two thousand years, many Rokkalians started to migrate from their world to ours. Ethnic tensions began to rise, planetary nationalism swelled. Then came a war,” Barriss briefly paused

“…and we started it. Over a thousand Rokkalians slaughtered in a night of racial riots by our people. And that was the spark for nuclear war. In less than a year, we lost a combined four billion souls. Eventually, the Rokkalians nations prevailed over our nations, and we were forced into surrender. We would have become servants to them, but the Galactic Republic discovered us, and Vaylaan was assisted by what were pretty much peace-loving aliens into brokering better terms. And Vaylaan was friendly with the Republic for the thousands of years following that. Of course, when the Republic went too far about 400 years ago, we sided with Rokkalia in fighting the Republic away. That cumulated with the United Nations of Mirial. But united politically we may be, the Rokkalians will still always look at Vaylaanis with racial suspicion. The ones who started a great war and who escaped punishment thanks to the Galactic Republic.”

“And so, if they capture a Vaylaani on Rokkalian soil, you’ll get the short end of the stick?”

“Yes. Traitor’s punishment, and I don’t wanna describe it to you. So guess, if they can inflict such abuse on their own cousins, can you imagine what they would do to a non-Mirialan? Those ARC troopers didn’t get killed outright because Luminara decided it so”

Silence ensued from the cockpit, only broken a couple of minutes later by the beeping of the cockpit controls

“People, we are about five minutes from the coordinates that Master Gallia set. I need the forward cannons prepped and ready to go,” Anakin called out

“I’ll go,” Barriss volunteered. “Ahsoka, if we have to shoot our way onto any vessels, you best make sure you’re ready for a fight when this ship lands”

“Okay!”

“You yourself be prepared to leave the ship too. Shooting is fun only for so long,” Obi-Wan added

“Shooting at the people who kidnapped my master _is_ fun!” Barriss jabbed back


	14. Unwanted guests 2: Electric Boogaloo

“Commander Ventress”

“Commodore Plarr. You left me idling here for 30 minutes. Not that I mind though”

“That’s a first”

“You gave me more playtime, and I have nothing against that. Now let’s get this cargo transfer done. You’ll love what you’re about to see”

The Separatist officer boarded the cargo vessel with the Sith Acolyte. Silently they walked through the corridors until they reached one of the doors, where Plarr could hear muffled moaning from behind

“Behold!” Ventress exclaimed as she opened the door

Plarr looked upon the sight that stood before him: A Rokkalian-Mirialan woman of an average green complexion and a slender built, suspended in floating manacles in a standing spreadeagle. He recognised the blue glow around her as that of a containment field, so that definitely meant she was a Jedi. He gazed upon the few swatches of ripped-up heavy cloth that she wore, remnants of a Mirialan ceremonial robe that now looked more like a sleeveless crop top and a miniskirt. Her face was wet with tears that smudged her eyeliner and slightly reddish drool that dripped from a gaping jaw

Some of her dark green hair was ruffled, although much of it was neatly in a bun. Most of the ruffled parts were her fringe strands, that slightly covered eyes that were rolled up and cheeks that were blushing red. He then let his eyes wander down, and feasted his eyes on the little bit of silver construction tape that was wound around her right leg, with a little purple box peeking out from the tape, along with a purple wire that led up towards the point where her legs would connect, hidden only by broken clothes. He pretty much figured out what was going on _there_ from her horny facial expression

“Ventress, you’re quite the crazy one”

“Crazy is my middle name. I think even Count Dooku would be taken just a little aback”

“And he might even thank you for making his job just slightly easier”

“Perhaps. Now get the droids to move her into the ship”

“Aye,” Plarr nodded as he then gestured for a group of worker droids, as well as a pair of battery droids that would provide power to the containment field frame while in transport

The two returned to the main vessel as the droids began to reconnect the frame to the battery droids, while the worker droids began to move the containment field out of the room

That was when the ship went onto yellow alert, as the proximity alarm went off

\---

“Dropping out in 3, 2, 1…”

Anakin dropped the cargo ship out hyperspace. What the five Jedi saw from their places on the ship was something they weren’t keen on seeing: A pair of new Separatist light cruisers before them. They were outgunned, but probably not outmatched

“Anakin! The front ship! Cargo bay on the left! The one with a grey ship docked inside! That’s the one!” Adi exclaimed, feeling Luminara’s presence

The cargo ship lurched to the left; just as yellow flashing lights could be seen within the openings of the two vessels

“Barriss! Get ready to shoot out their cargo bay shield generator!”

“Bad idea!” Obi-Wan yelled. “If we blow it open and if Luminara is outside the smaller ship, we risk sending her flying into space before the emergency doors shut!”

“We can risk it, Obi-Wan. She hasn’t left the grey ship yet”

“How can you be so sure?”

“A feeling”

\---

Ventress didn’t bother hanging around the cargo bay, instead opting to return to her private quarters aboard the cruiser. Surely sending a couple of Vulture droids to intercept that stray vessel would turn it around. Plarr followed closely behind, electing to return to the bridge of the vessel

Just as they left, so did a couple of Vultures, leaving to push that ship away

And 30 seconds later, the alert went to red, with the cargo vessel firing upon the Vultures, destroying both with pinpoint accuracy. It certainly had hostile intents

Three more Vultures were deployed and sent out for the cargo vessel, but it simply gunned all three down. Only a Jedi could pilot a ship that well. And before more Vultures from the other cargo bay were scrambled, the cargo vessel opened fire upon the top corner of the cargo bay, making quick work of the shield generators

With the generators down, cargo bay began to rapidly decompress, sending a few battle droids flying into space, while the massive emergency doors shut in on the cargo bay to stop the decompression from damaging the cruiser. Unfortunately, it was too slow to stop the cargo vessel too, as it ploughed right into the cargo bay, just narrowly avoiding the grey one parked inside with its valuable cargo

The yellow vessel ground to a halt inside, its forward cannons beginning to tear apart at the fixtures and guns inside the cargo bay, while its rear cargo hatch opened up. Droids began to swarm and shoot at the yellow vessel, only for the ignition of four lightsabres from within, bouncing the blaster shots with ease

The forward cannons stopped right as the four Jedi pushed from the cargo door, with a fifth coming up a few seconds behind them. The droids were utterly unable to stop the Jedi from making their way over to the grey vessel. It was then when the same turbolift that Ventress had taken to her quarters opened up again to reveal the same person, her two crimson red lightsabres ignited

\---

The five Jedi rounded the corner, seeing Luminara trapped in the containment field frame and surrounded by droids moving her. Within seconds, they cut down the unarmed droids, disabling the frame and causing her to drop down. She would have hit the deck of the ship, but Adi was swift to catch her as she did

“Rara, you okay?”

“…urghh…”

“Master, are-oh…oh dear,” Barriss paused as she saw what was going on in her master’s most sensitive spot. Adi swiftly noticed it too

“Boys? I need you two, and young Tano, to get back to the hangar and prepare to fight your way to the bridge. Leave us alone, this is ladies’ business”

“We shouldn’t be splitting up, Master!” Ahsoka argued

“Ahsoka, just follow the orders!” Anakin shouted back

“But…okay, I’m with you”

The three dashed out while Adi and Barriss attended to Luminara, who begun to paw at the controller box that was taped to her leg

“Don’t struggle, Master. I’ll take it off for you,” Barriss called as she reached down and yanked the egg vibrator out

“Ah!”

“There,” Adi said, while cutting off the inactive manacles from her wrists and ankles

“I…was hoping…you’d set it to max…before you removed it,” Luminara mumbled

“Er, we kinda don’t…have that time,” Barriss blushed as she responded, knowing just how uncontrollably turned on her master had become. She then yanked the tape off, along with the controller box, pocketing the entire device when Adi wasn’t looking. Adi was instead, too busy with trying to help Luminara to her feet, which wasn’t easy, considering her legs had been turned to jelly by the abuse

Just outside, they heard the sound of clashing lightsabres

\---

“Look! The same warrior who snatched Master Luminara!” Ahsoka shouted, seeing Ventress briskly walk towards them, lightsabres at the ready. She twirled one of them around into a reverse grip, before attaching the two blades pommel-to-pommel, turning it into a sabrestaff

“So, you’ve come here to lose to me again?” Anakin taunted

“No, I came here to kill you,” Ventress snarled as she spun the sabrestaff around. “All of you!”

Anakin leap at Ventress, clashing sabres as he flew over her. Ahsoka followed suit while Obi-Wan took her flank, bringing up his distinctive Form III stance. Ventress ducked as Anakin landed and took another swing at her. Swiping away at his sabre with the back end of hers, she lunged at Ahsoka with the front end, the girl barely able to parry the older woman’s blow. Ventress then spun the staff around again for a killing blow on Ahsoka, only to be forced to duck a narrow swing from Obi-Wan. Ahsoka took the chance to drop and roll herself out of the way, knowing she absolutely could not contend with the aggressive fighting form of the dark warrior

Just then, Barriss came out of the grey vessel, with Adi and Luminara following close behind

“You all take the bridge!” Anakin shouted over the screeching of a sabre lock with Ventress. “We’re busy!”

“They go, I’ll help!” Barriss yelled. “Ahsoka, go with them!”

The two friends swapped places with each other, Barriss rushing in with a powerful overhead strike on Ventress, while Ahsoka sheathed her weapon and ran to the turbolift lobby with the two older women

\---

“Commodore! Three of the Jedi just boarded the turbolift, and are headed for the bridge deck!”

“Ah, rats in a trap!” Plarr called as he signalled for one of the bridge droids to surround the turbolift frame with a ray shield. The lift would then stop at the deck below the bridge, before droidekas would swarm the door as it opened, and mow down the three Jedi with copious amounts of heavy blaster fire

The lift stopped, and as planned, the droidekas surrounded the door. Even as the door was opening and the ray shield was deactivating, they already began to open fire on the door, allowing the shots to rip and tear everything inside

And nothing. The doors opened wider and there was no one inside

“What?” Plarr was confused by the reports from the droidekas. “We all saw them entering that lift!”

Just then, an alarm sounded, an alarm that warned of a breach at bridge level

\---

The three Jedi stood at the top of the lift, having jumped up through the roof hatch the moment the door closed and were out of sight of the security cameras, before the ray shields were switched. None of them were stupid enough to fall for the oldest trick in the book

The fact that the lift was stopped one floor below the bridge level only made things easier: from where they stood, they were on the bridge level. All they had to do was to cut their way in, and that was exactly what they did, entering the bridge level to the sounds of blaster fire below them and alarms around them

“Alright then girls, keep a 2-metre spacing. Last thing we need is to all be ray shielded together,” Adi called

“Let’s do this,” Luminara called, activating her reacquired weapon in a reverse grip, which caught Ahsoka’s curiosity

The three walked together down the hall. Several B2 super battle droids came at them, but all were quickly cut down by deflected fire. One tried to launch wrist rockets, but the older Jedi easily contained the blast with a Force shield. The droidekas from the lower deck attempted to rush up to the bridge level, but were bottlenecked by the narrow staircases, allowing Luminara to start hurling debris at the them when they came out one-by-one

Within a minute, they reached the door to the bridge. With a powerful combined Force repulse, they sent the metal structure buckling backwards, disabling the doorway ray shield generators. They then sent a second repulse that bent the door far enough for an opening to be made

At once, battle droids inside the bridge began to open fire on the opening, only for debris to start flying into the bridge like an automatic slugthrower. Several droids were struck down while Ahsoka began to cut through the weakened metal door, widening the opening for the trio to step through. Plarr grabbed a blaster carbine from one of the fallen droids and opened fire on full auto, only for Adi to deflect the shots back at his weapon, knocking it out of his hands and breaking it

“Good morning! Don’t you love party crashing?” Adi gleefully taunted

“It’s not over yet!” Plarr shouted as he ran for one of the ship’s control panels, intending to pull the self-destruct sequence. Before he was even three steps off, Luminara sent the piece of door that Ahsoka cut out flying into Plarr, knocking him down and unconscious

“Ship’s ours now! Good work,” Adi cooed as she handed Luminara a small glass-and-metal panel. It was a pocket-sized touchscreen computer that could be folded out to form a larger screen, boasting powerful processing power and software intended for breaking and slicing into encrypted devices. “Property of Luminara” was written on the back

“Let’s go home,” Luminara calmly went over the ship’s nav stations with her computer, breaking into the system and configuring the vessel to fly back towards Mirialan space. The other vessel, realising that its twin had been hijacked, began to open fire on her, but it barely scratched its deflector shields before it jumped to hyperspace

The starlight around them began to warp around them, and the cruiser took off, with the other vessel following behind closely


	15. Three against one

Ventress and the three Jedi were knocked off their feet by the jump to hyperspace, the inertia dampeners of the ship having been damaged by the impact

“What?”

“Whoops, someone must have hijacked the bridge! This is why you don’t lone-wolf,” Obi-Wan laughed, while Ventress used the pause to catch her breath after the past 3 minutes of the intense three-versus-one fight

“Doesn’t matter…I’ll kill you three, then I’ll kill them!”

“You talk a lot of shit for someone who lost to a Padawan!” Anakin carried on the charade

Barriss remained silent as she picked up and twirled her lightsabre around

“I lost? Are you sure I lost? Look at you, Skywalker. Look at what you have become thanks to Yavin. You are never in control of yourself, always getting angry and hormonal! That is not the Jedi Way,” Ventress taunted back, eliciting an angry glare from Anakin

“You are scum, just like all of those traitors who are with Dooku!”

“Anakin, don’t let her get to your head!”

“No, you should. I speak the truth you don’t wanna hear. I know just how nasty the Jedi can be. To their own! My-“

Before Ventress could continue, Barriss ran at her, only to be hurled back by a Force blast from the Dathomirian that knocked her on her back. At once, Ventress charged at Obi-Wan, forcing Anakin into an awkward stance as he rushed to intercept. Her two blades clashed with theirs in a tight sabre lock. Summoning the Dark Side more, she began to push the two back, trying to disrupt their footing

Obi-Wan was fast, switching off his sabre and ducking beside Ventress, going for a kick to her knee. She was faster, jumping up and giving a light kick to Obi-Wan, sending him rolling away. She hopped over Anakin and landed before him as he turned, forcing the young Knight to face her alone

“Just like old times, Skywalker”

“But you are so! Wrong!” Anakin shouted, bringing his sabre down on Ventress, forcing her sabre staff down. She quickly tried to spin it around for a glancing strike, but Anakin caught the opposing blade, halting her strike. He used the opening and sent a high kick at her stomach, causing her to stagger back

Recollecting herself, she broke the staff back into twin sabres and went for a quick jab at him with her right side. Anakin miscalculated the strike, and went for a heavy parry to swipe down what he thought was a heavy thrust. And that was a grave mistake, a mistake Ventress had seen other Jedi make fighting her: not realising she was able to combine the graceful style of Form II and the art of dual wielding. Most lightsabre duellists tended to assume dual wielders were Form VI practitioners, and thus wouldn’t recover from strikes as rapidly as Form II users. Although her mastery of Form II was nowhere near Dooku’s, it served her well enough to take down the average Jedi Padawan

And also, for angry Jedi Knights like the one before her

With Anakin’s guard down, Ventress took a quick jab with her left side. Anakin ducked to avoid the blade, but it grazed past his right cheek, cutting into him from cheek, past his eyes and to his ridge

“Argh!” Anakin yelled out in pain as he fell to the ground, barely rolling away as Ventress swung both her sabres down for a killing blow, laughing as she did so

“Still wanna know the truth, kid?”

Before Ventress could continue, Obi-Wan was back on his feet, forcing her to backpedal slightly. He sent a quick jab at her that she swiftly caught with one of her sabres, going for a wide swing with the other. Obi-Wan simply lifted his sabre to a more defensive pose, catching her swing

Anakin angrily sent a powerful Force blast at Ventress, sending her flying halfway across the cargo bay. Landing nearing Barriss, who was still halfway standing up, she took swing at her, but Barriss quickly intercepted with a high block. Ventress tried to swing her other sabre low, but her opponent simply leaped back, disengaging the sabre lock

Ventress stood before her three opponents, finally admitting that they were too much for her in a melee. Her next best move would be to force her way to the bridge…no, there would be an equal amount of resistance there. She had to retreat, her stamina was running out, even with the Dark Side to aid her

With a powerful leap, she sent herself flying towards the grey vessel, dashing through the door with boosted speed. Locking the door behind her and sprinting through the deck, she positioned herself right outside the Fanblade Fighter, where it was still parked within. If her foresight was right, they hijacked the vessel to fly back to Mirialan space, a flight that would take just ten minutes, given that its hyperdrive rating was thrice that of the grey vessel

She only had to hold them off for 5 more minutes. 5 more minutes before she could hop into the Fighter, hop out of the cruiser as it dropped from hyperspace and be reinforced by Vultures and the other cruiser

\---

Luminara was slightly disappointed that they were on a Separatist ship: most of the crew were droids, and those clankers don’t wear clothes. She unfortunately had to content with wearing what was left of her robes, and it wasn’t much. Fortunately, her stockings weren’t completely destroyed, so the cold air of the bridge weren’t giving her chills. Memories of the unfortunate event on Ilum that left her and her Padawan trapped under an avalanche for several hours were easily triggered by cold air now, and she wasn’t too keen on remembering it

“Rara?” Adi began to peel off the outer layer of her cream coloured Jedi robes. “You look cold”

“I’m not, I promise,” Luminara monotonously muttered while she replied a text message from Obi-Wan on her computer

“Nah, you certainly are,” Adi giggled a little as she removed the outer layer, revealing the white undershirt below. She walked behind Luminara, who was sitting on one of the control panels, and gently placed the robes over her shoulders

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Because you are my friend”

“I don’t deserve that from you. Not after these past few days”

“But all these years, you’ve always been a good friend to me. To all of us. You’ve been the one with the kindest words for all of us”

“And now, I’ve discarded all of you for my people”

“But I respect that. I wouldn’t do it, but I finally get why you did. You wanted to keep the peace because you love your people. And you saved Stass and I because you love me”

“You sound like your mind has turned 180 degrees from the day I first picked you two up”

“Not entirely. But I got to meditate on the Force on the way here. And it told me to do this”

Adi bent herself down and sidestepped Luminara slightly, before giving her a peck on her blushed cheek

“When the war is over, we will reform the High Council. The right way”

“When the war is over, Dooku would have won”

“He won’t. The Dark Side will never prevail. Balance will”

Adi sat down beside Luminara, letting her tired head lay on the Mirialan’s shoulder even as she was beginning to put on the sleeves of Adi’s robe

Ahsoka was watching them the whole time, unsure of what to think. At first, she was so sure that Luminara had gone crazy, kissing Adi in the garden, but now, she saw the Jedi Master return the favour. She didn’t know what to think about the affection they clearly had between each other, an affection that breached the Code through and through

I should call them out on this, Ahsoka thought to herself, but they must be doing this for a reason! Has the Council been hiding something from all of us?

She didn’t want to, but began to reflect on her early days as a Youngling, barely being able to keep up with her peers. Young Ahsoka had seen the exciting life of a Jedi Knight and was determined to become one of them, but her peers gave her fierce competition. Master Plo Koon, as one of her main teachers, was always patient with her, understanding the fire burning in her and giving her special attention. She grew to see him as a father-figure, but that only created a sense of fear in her, fear that she would disappoint Plo if she failed her Initiate Trials

That was when she first met Barriss Offee, three years prior. Barriss, five years her senior, took a liking to the struggling Youngling, and it felt nothing like Ahsoka had with her other friends. Where she feared disappointing Plo, she saw confidence with Barriss. A desire to outperform her friend and have good laughs about it, even if she failed. Quickly, their relationship progressed from a student-tutor duo to friends. Somehow, she bonded with this older friend better than her other peers. She couldn’t put it in words, they just clicked together. They were friends, and damn close ones at that

Seeing Adi and Luminara together like this, she couldn’t help but wonder if her friendship with Barriss was like that too. More than friends

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden shudder of the light cruiser dropping out of hyperspace. In front of it, two cruisers from the Mirialan Home Fleet began approaching the hijacked vessel, with Luminara having earlier informed them of her rescue and her returning

“Home sweet home,” Adi mumbled

Without warning, the MHF ships suddenly began to open fire…not on the cruiser they were on, they seemed to be firing around it


	16. I'm just scared of myself

_Five minutes earlier_

Barriss and Anakin were finding it exceptionally hard to cut their way through the locked cargo door of the grey vessel. No doubt, Ventress was holding them back

Obi-Wan simply got on the comms, and began to ping the bridge of the _Resolute_

“Admiral Yularen,” Obi-Wan greeted as Yularen’s projection appeared

“General Kenobi. I take it that you have successfully rescued Unduli from the Separatist warrior?”

“We have, and we hijacked a new Separatist light cruiser. We are in hyperspace now. If my guess is right, we are headed back into Mirialan space”

“Until you can confirm that your destination is indeed Mirialan space, I will _not_ be sending any Republic vessels into that area! We both know the repercussions of an uninvited entry!”

“…Hold on a second,” Obi-Wan sent a text message to the pocket computer that they had earlier picked from Luminara’s apartment, certain that either Adi or Luminara would reply to it, and of course the reply came in a split second. It simply said “Yes”

“Yes, I can confirm we are returning to Mirialan space. Be ready to pull the four of us out of the Seppie ship once we arrive. And if you see a grey cargo vessel leaving the Seppie ship, treat it as a hostile”

“Four of you? And what about General Gallia?”

“We can’t take her back until we are sure the Mirialans are willing to return General Allie too, or at least until they agree to let Gallia be returned”

“We can only hope that our presence doesn’t aggravate them. I will only be sending the _Resolute_ into their territory. Any more than that is too risky for us all”

“I agree with that, Admiral. I will see you soon”

“Same, General, same”

The call was ended. Obi-Wan turned around to see that the two had made little more progress in cutting a hole in the door

“I see you all are doing good! Need my help?”

“Would be nice”

Summoning the Force, Obi-Wan began to feel the lightsabres in their hands. He began to let them be forced down, feeling the tug-of-war against the Dark force that was trying to hold them back. Ventress was using her fear to power her efforts to keep their progress slow, and she was running out of Force stamina too

In that moment, her foresight became clouded. She was going to summon the rest of the Vulture droids that were on the undamaged cargo bay, as well as from the other ship to start shooting at everything they saw when they dropped from hyperspace. Ventress had no doubts the hijackers were taking it to Mirialan space, and it wasn’t like she gave a damn. Gone was Dooku’s warning to avoid antagonising them, replaced by her anger and desire for revenge. Revenge that would come if she could hold the Jedi off…and suddenly, she could feel the Jedi disengaged from breaking into her ship

“Droidekas! Coming down the turbolift!” Obi-Wan shouted

Immediately, Anakin and Barriss disengaged from cutting the door and turned to face half a dozen droidekas roll around the cargo bay, creating a wall before them. They stopped at their positions and uncurled themselves while raising their shields

“Duck!” Anakin shouted as they began to open fire. At once, he began to use the Force to summon a damaged piece of overhead equipment to drop on one of the droidekas, smashing it to pieces. The trio then telekinetically sent the shrapnel from that droideka flying up and raining in down on the others, hitting them on their most vulnerable spot: their top. Some of the droidekas were damaged and began to wildly fire, while others were distracted and began to try to target the debris instead

Barriss took the chance and made a rapid dash for the one droideka that lost its deflector shields, grabbing it and turning it upon its comrades. The others noticed what she was trying to do and tried to fire on her, but she was too fast, and within the next 30 seconds, all the droidekas were disabled

Before they could resume their entry into the grey vessel, they were all jolted off their feet by the cruiser dropping from hyperspace. A split second later, the Fanblade Fighter burst itself from the grey vessel. Ventress summoned the Force in a burst spurt of stamina and jimmied the massive cargo bay emergency doors open, forcing the first segment just wide enough to allow her narrow vessel to fit through. The three Jedi inside couldn’t stop her, they were too busy trying to prevent themselves from being blown out

As Ventress left the cargo bay, she unfolded the iconic red blades of the starfighter, revealing a pair of laser cannons on the tips of each conductive panel, while Vulture droids from the undamaged cargo bay began to spring forth. 15 seconds later, the other light cruiser dropped from hyperspace, releasing a couple dozen Vulture droids as it did. The pair of MHF cruisers began to open fire with their turbolasers, which the Separatist fighters easily weaved through

The emergency doors having shut again, Obi-Wan signalled for the two to head into the yellow vessel, while he retrieved his comms and pinged Ahsoka’s

\---

The three of them stared in shock from the bridge, seeing the Fanblade and several Vultures fly out to the opposing ships

Just then, Ahsoka felt a holoprojector alert, and she withdrew it to the image of Obi-Wan appearing

“Ahsoka, come in, tell Luminara that she needs to get the emergency doors on cargo bay one open! And prepare to open fire on the other cruiser!”

“Yes, Master Kenobi!”

Ahsoka went towards the two older women, but they’d heard the call too, and Luminara had retrieved her pocket computer, running over to a different station and forcing her way into its systems

“Alright, cargo bay door…one. Open!”

Nothing happened

“Open, dammit!”

The door wouldn’t budge. Its emergency system was never meant to be overwritten

“Ahsoka, tell them that they have to shoot their way out”

Ahsoka was already pinging Obi-Wan

“Master Kenobi, the door can’t be opened! You all have to shoot your way out!”

“That door is too strong for that. We all have to use the Force to pull it open! If Ventress can do it, we can too! All six of us!”

Ahsoka looked up from the holoprojector, only to see Luminara and Adi reaching into the Force. She followed suit, feeling the emergency door buckle and give way. The first segment wasn’t hard to open, but at the second segment, they felt more strain, having to pull two layers of door apart simultaneously. By the third layer, their progress was slowing. Fortunately for them, they needed only three segments open

Just then, the other light cruiser began to bombard the one they were on. Ahsoka was distracted, causing the door to slow to a sandcrawler’s pace without the last bit of her help. She tried to focus, but panic had started to set in, and she couldn’t find the door again

“Ahsoka, don’t give up! Calm yourself!” Adi yelled

“You can do it! Just believe in yourself! Don’t rush it!” Luminara encouraged her

Ahsoka reached again into the Force, but it was to naught. Her mind was racing, the fear of letting everyone down clouded her…the fear of letting everyone down…

I’m not scared of the Separatists! I’m just scared of myself!

The memory of Barriss telling her about confidence in the face of the worst began to replay in her head. She cleared the cloud she knew she was creating for herself, and looked again

The door was faint, but it was all she needed. She felt herself pawing away at the structure through the Force, letting her grip recover, and again, and again

And she was holding onto the door. Yes, she was. And she pulled. She couldn’t even hear the echoes of turbolaser impact outside

The door opened more, and Anakin instinctively floored the vessel’s throttle. And as it passed through, the third segment was forced back all the way, the yellow vessel sending sparks flying as it scraped the door. It flew out to the emergency door slamming shut again, and to the tune of six worn-down Jedi

Anakin quickly piloted the vessel away from the two Separatist cruisers to get away from the turbolasers, and after Ventress, to stop her from hammering the MHF cruisers

Meanwhile, Luminara was quick to the opposite side of the bridge, slicing into the weapons station, and training the cruiser’s turbolasers on its twin

Seconds later, the two vessels began to trade fire. It was only a matter of which lost their shields first

\---

“Captain! There are small ships emerging from the friendly ship!” One of the battle officers on the MHV _Reik’ya_ yelled

“What? Run scans now!”

“Hold on…Separatist Vulture droids! And that red ship at the front, that’s Separatist too!”

It was at that moment when the second, hostile Separatist light cruiser dropped from hyperspace too. It too, began to release Vulture droids

“Open fire on them! Prepare the proximity autocannons! And don’t hit Luminara’s ship!”

The _Reik’ya_ and her twin, the _Oqq’li_ , began to let loose on the incoming Separatist fighters with the turbolasers, a bad choice for dealing with light, agile vessels. However, there was that small, slim chance. Or maybe they could put pressure on the hostile cruiser

The enemy fighters did not let up. They weaved through the turbolasers, Ventress giving them orders to disable them so that she could take the crew of the two cruisers hostages to ensure Luminara’s surrender. The hostile cruiser also turned a few of her turbolasers and began to return long ranged turbolaser fire, harassing their shields

A minute later, the droid fighters and the red fighter were upon the the _Oqq’li_. Its multi-barrelled autocannons quickly spun up and fired on the fighters, each sending a hundred plasma bolts hurling per second. The fighters lurched away, trying to avoid the wall of plasma coming their way, but it was far harder than with the slow firing turbolaser batteries. Where they could weave _between_ shots, the autocannons forced them to move out of the way altogether. One of the Vultures wasn’t fast enough and got itself caught in a stream of plasma. Over fifty shots ripped into its side wings, shearing them off cleanly

Meanwhile, the two Separatist cruisers began to open fire on each other. The one that was friendly was able to train all of her guns on the hostile one, which was forced to split between two targets. That meant the hostile cruiser might be forced into submission quickly, which would disable the Vultures…

…no wait, there were also Vultures that originated from the friendly vessel too. Why hasn’t Luminara disabled them yet, the captain of the _Reik’ya_ thought to himself

\---

“Admiral! This is General Kenobi! We arrived early to the battle, and the Separatists are already harassing the Mirialans with starfighters! They brought in a second light cruiser that is hostile! We need your backup ASAP!”

“What? We are still seven minutes away!”

“We can’t hold them off for that long! And I doubt Luminara can either!”

“You all will have to find a way! We are stressing our hyperdrives as it is!”

“And one more thing! The enemy commander is not in a grey cargo ship, she is in a red coloured fighter! Ginivex-class!”

“What class?” a different voice shouted

“Ginivex!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” the ARC trooper Fives came onto the holoprojector. He had witnessed Ventress’ dogfighting prowess, seeing dozens of his brothers shot down by her. Against Vulture droids, the clone pilots were pushing their limits, but against the Fanblade Fighter? No chance

“Fives! Good to see you back again,” Anakin called out to the comms

“General Skywalker, General Kenobi,” Clone Commander Cody joined in too. “We came up with a plan that involves boarding the enemy vessels and capturing them. New tech, that’s why. But I need to know first, how strong are their fighter escorts around them?”

“Zero! They sent all their Vultures to hit the Mirialans!”

“That’s perfect. I’ll be gathering two LAATs for a task force. The first, with Rex’s men, will hit the hostile vessel directly by blowing through the hull, and seizing the bridge. The other, with my men, will go for the vessel that’s hijacked, and pull the Jedi home

“I’m with that plan”

\---

Unfortunately for Luminara, the controls to the Vulture droids were nowhere to be found in the bridge. Because there were none

And unfortunately for Cody’s plan, the Mirialans had their own ideas for transferring the Jedi


	17. We were just following orders

“Ms Unduli!” the bridge holoprojector came to life

“Captain La’ha,” she replied. “What’s your status?”

“Not good, those Vultures are avoiding even the autocannons. We are still able to force them to keep their distance, but if that red starfighter manages to shoot down our autocannons, we are done. Can’t you disable them from your side?”

“I thought so too! But there are no computer programs on board that command the Vultures! I suspect they are a prototype design that operate independently!”

“Dammit. I’ll think of something, just keep pressure on that hostile ship until we find a way to pull you from the ship”

“Very well then-”

“Wait!” Adi suddenly jumped into the frame before the line was cut. “I was the Republic Jedi you took hostage a few days back! You recaptured my partner while we were escaping earlier-”

“And you want us to release her if the Republic comes now to our aid? Hah! Talk to Governor Ferrousia if you even want to attempt that. I wouldn’t waste my time if I were you. I’d just flee”

“Please, we were just following orders!”

Luminara looked at Adi. That was the worst thing anyone could have said

“See, this is why we aren’t going to release her! Because none of you Jedi scum will be accountable for anything! You are a danger to us all!”

The line was cut

“Masters, what are we going to do?” Ahsoka called out

Luminara said nothing. She simply pulled out her lightsabre and pressed its business end on Adi’s waist

“You ruined it, Adi. And you’re coming with me”

“Rara, you don’t have to do this”

“I don’t have to. But I want to. Since you say you get what I did earlier, can you trust me on what I’m doing next?”

“Turning me in?”

“Only way to save Stass”

“Master Gallia! Don’t listen to her! She’s using your affection to turn you!”

“Shut the fuck up, kid. You’d better just hide,” Luminara said nonchalantly, while she Force-grabbed her other lightsabre from Adi’s belt that had been left on the console they were sitting on earlier

“Ahsoka, please hide,” Adi agreed

“No! Never!” Ahsoka ignited her lightsabre and began to rush at Luminara

“Do what you must,” Luminara whispered to Adi, who then proceeded telekinetically grab Ahsoka and freeze her in mid-air

“What’s next?”

Adi used the Force to pull Ahsoka’s lightsabre out of her grip, before grabbing the belt and using it to tie Ahsoka’s wrists behind her back, and onto a pole protruding from the floor

“Master! Please! No! We can fight her together!” Ahsoka was screaming the whole way through

“Try thinking that when there’s a lightsabre about to go off into you,” Adi half-lied, before she then allowed Luminara to bring forth pieces of cable that were hanging from the broken door to bind her arms into a boxtie

Luminara’s two lightsabres were then withdrawn onto her belt, which was when Ahsoka’s own lightsabre was suddenly telekinetically lifted and flung towards their direction

\---

_Meanwhile_

“Sir! Make the call! Is the yellow vessel friendly or not?!” The first officer of the _Oqq’li_ called

“I don’t know! Really! They hit our gunboats this morning and our enemies now!” her captain was indecisive

Onboard the freight ship, Anakin was swift in weaving in and out of the fire of the Vulcans, while Barriss shot at them with precise bursts. The Vultures were desperately trying to fall behind the freight ship, avoiding the fire. Noticing this, Anakin pulled the ship nearer to the _Oqq’li_ , allowing its batteries of autocannons to start chewing at the Vultures. The autocannons had a massive rate of fire, but lacked individual shot power, meaning several dozen shots had to pound a Vulture to bring it down. Nonetheless, the Jedi and the MHF entered an unspoken and uneasily alliance, pounding the Separatist fighters hard

All except for one

With her deflector shields barely worn down, Ventress made another dive for the _Reik’ya_ , targeting the autocannon batteries. She was easily taking down two or three per run, swooping down and pulling loop-the-loops swiftly. The few autocannons still on her hit their mark without fail, but the Fanblade’s deflector shields held true

It was then when Anakin broke off from the _Oqq’li_ , having relieved some of the pressure on it, and acquired Ventress as a target. Swooping below the decks of the MHF ships, the freight ship began to take longer ranged shots at the Vultures harassing the _Reik’ya_. They broke formation, leaving two to be immediately shredded by autocannon fire

Ventress noticed them, and switched her targets. Collecting a trio of Vultures, she headed towards the yellow vessel, opening up long range laser cannon fire of her own. The dazzle of red and blue laser shots lit up the black emptiness, showering whatever they struck with bright yellow sparks

Unnoticed by both sides however, an MHF stealth corvette flanked around them, headed straight for the two Separatist light cruisers

\---

That’s not aimed at me, Luminara thought to herself, raising her hand instinctively to summon the Force, but stopping herself from actually halting the flying streak of green plasma. It was so obvious from the trajectory that Ahsoka wasn’t targeting her

The lightsabre instead arced around her and behind, spearing Plarr right through his chest while he was readying to spray another blaster carbine at them. He collapsed like a sack of tubers, dead before he hit the floor

“Oh,” Luminara commented, the situation barely registering with her. “oh, err, thanks”

“I…I killed him…”

“Don’t think about it,” Adi tried to calm her down, knowing the shock of killing for the first time. “Just don’t”

There was brief silence. The thudding and echoes from the turbolasers impacting the ship’s hull barely registered in their ears. And the holoprojector came to life

“Ms Unduli, this is Commander Illayed of the _Piro_. We are making a dash for your ship to pull you out! ETA 3 minutes. Keep that hostile vessel busy!”

“Yeah…alright…thanks”

“Miss, are you alright?”

“Fine. We will meet you at the undamaged cargo bay”

The line was cut. With a prod of the sabre hilt, Adi began walking to what was the bridge doors, Luminara following right behind. Ahsoka wordlessly sat still, her mind still racing inside

“Rara, you sure you wanna leave Ahsoka inside a ship that is under fire?”

“Didn’t you notice that backup has arrived? Look out the window”

\---

Less than ten kilometres from the action, the _Resolute_ dropped from hyperspace. The Venator-class Star Destroyer created a triangle between itself, the MHF cruisers and the Separatist light cruisers, keeping itself out of the path of fire. Immediately as planned, a pair of LAAT gunships emerged from her hangar bay, headed for the two Separatist ships

Seeing his flagship return, Anakin broke off from the dogfight and headed back for the _Resolute_. Ventress and the Vultures followed closely behind, switching targets and now intent on taking on the Republic Star Destroyer

“General Skywalker! This is Captain Rex! Our LAATs have just departed from the _Resolute_. I will be hitting the hostile cruiser to go for a capture, and Cody’s men will go for the friendly one, just as planned”

“Alright, you sure you can handle the clankers without us?”

“Of course, sir, we know that all of you need a breather at this rate. Now let’s scrap some metal!”

Rex’s battlecry led to cheering of the 501st troopers over the comms

“I will see you back on the _Resolute_ then”

“Same to that, General”

As the line was being cut, Barriss noticed, from her vantage point, the MHV _Piro_ already stationed outside the light cruiser, decloaking as it did so. The corvette used the cruiser’s body as a shield from its twin’s barrage, and it was clearly doing a personnel transfer

Of course. Master can’t return to Republic space now, so she can only return home. And carry on what she was doing before, Barriss thought to herself. She was tempted to tell Anakin and Obi-Wan, but decided against it. She knew what she was going to do was rash, and they wouldn’t approve. She knew exactly what would happen if Rokkalians got their hands on her. But she didn’t care. Ahsoka was probably in Luminara’s clutches, and she was going to rescue her best friend. And her master too, from herself

The yellow freighter returned to where it started off several days prior. The Separatist fighters approached for a strafe on the _Resolute_ , but was forced to keep their distance by anti-fighter laser cannons and the emergence of several V-19 clone starfighters. Once again, Ventress ignored those and began a strafe of the Resolute’s underbelly, barely missing the hangar bay. Several laser shots struck her fighter, but she was still at 60% shields

As she went about for another strafing run, she noticed the yellow vessel suddenly spring forth from the hangar again, headed for the two Separatist cruisers, as well as two more juicy Republic targets


	18. Tell me where she is

“General Kenobi, General Skywalker,” Cody greeted as the two Jedi emerged from the ramp of the freighter. “Our LAATs are just one minute away from their intended targets. Rex’s squad will be a few seconds faster, I should add”

“Very then, we shall-”

The yellow vessel took off suddenly, running its way through the hangar bay shields and back out again

“-What!” “Hey, what’s going on!” “What’s that ship doing?”

The shocked Republic personnel could only watch as it flew off, while it occurred to Anakin and Obi-Wan that Barriss was missing

“Master! Barriss-”

“I’ll ping her”

Obi-Wan pulled out his holoprojector and pinged the cockpit of the ship. Barriss popped up immediately, and spoke before he did

“Master, in case you didn’t notice it already, Master Luminara is fleeing on a cloaked ship. I saw it dock briefly with the light cruiser, that’s how I know. And I’m going to stop her”

“You’re crazy! You’ll get yourself killed!”

“If that means she comes to her senses, then I will gladl-”

“Come back now! That’s an order!”

“And also, this is why I didn’t ask the both of you earlier. I knew y-”

“Of course we’d deny your plan! Now turn back!”

“I’ll see you again”

The line was cut. Anakin had no words

\---

Ventress pulled back from the strafes on the _Resolute_ , leaving the Vultures to do so, and instead went after the yellow vessel, intending to strike it from behind, before hitting the LAATs that were about to blow into the two light cruisers

All of a sudden, the yellow vessel nosedived, before sparks and an explosion burst forth from its front, seemingly out of nowhere. It then occurred to her that it was intentionally crashed into a cloaked ship, and that meant a Jedi was piloting it. All the better, one less Jedi to deal with, she thought as the yellow vessel disappeared. She proceeded head for the un-hijacked light cruiser, hoping she was fast enough to stop the 501st from hijacking yet another ship

Or maybe she just felt like killing, maybe

\---

Clearing the dust from her face, Barriss ignited her lightsabre, forcing her way into the deck of the _Piro_. The vessel collided so fast that it embedded itself far inside, so she didn’t have space vacuum to worry about. At once, MHF troopers began to open fire, which she dodged and deflected with ease

She leaped over some and dashed past others, running to wherever she felt her master. The troopers quickly began to disappear, and it was obvious why

Run and run she did. And as she turned the corner to where she felt the strongest, there stood Luminara, clad in a sickbay gown. There was not a single trooper around them

“Master!”

“Young Padawan. I’m glad you’re back agai-”

“Where’s Ahsoka?”

“-still haven’t thanked you on your part in rescuing me, and keeping my secr-”

“Tell me where she is!” Barriss levelled her weapon at Luminara’s neck

“She's safe, relax. But as I was saying, I could feel your prowess, fighting that dark warrior. You make me pro-”

“Ahsoka isn't safe until I save her. And I’m going to save you too”

“Look, she's safe already. But save me?”

“From yourself! This isn’t you!”

“No, Barriss. This has always been me. I love Mirial. You know it, you do too”

“No! Not like this!”

“Then like what?!” Luminara’s nonchalance turned into rage within half a second. “Tell me, Barriss, when the Order you devote your life to betrays you over and over, how much can one person take? I bled for the Jedi Order! I bled for the Republic! And watched us as we started an unjust war! And now even our people are not spared! And you take part in that! How fucking dare you!”

“You’re crazy, Master”

“But you don’t believe what you’re saying, do you?” She turned calm again

Barriss felt the desperation build up in herself. And it slowly turned into something else

“Master, I’m taking Ahsoka, and you’ll tell me where she is. I’ll kill everyone on this ship if I have too”

“You will?”

“I will. Starting with you”

Luminara knew her pushed her Padawan too much. Barriss wasn’t as equipped as she was to deal with anger and passion

“Ahsoka isn't on this ship, trust me, she's safe. Rest assured, the clones are going to pick her up from that cruiser. Now calm down. We are both rash people, you and me. And I guess I failed to teach you how to deal with that”

“I don’t want your apologies; I just want my true master back”

“She’s here. Always. Since the day I took you,” Luminara began to take a few steps forward, Barriss' weapon hand beginning to shake

“No, no, no”

“Your master is flawed. I am flawed. And I wanted to teach you to be a better person than I am. I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t. I hid my weaknesses from everyone, from you especially. Pretended to be the perfect teacher for you. But what's done is done; you’re a Jedi Knight, you’ll find your own path in the Force, and you must go a better path than me”

Barriss said nothing, while Luminara took a few more steps

“Or follow me, and I’ll show you what it means to be a peacekeeper, and to be patriotic”

“I am a peacekeeper. I fight those who aren’t peaceful”

“Master Allie said the same thing. And I say to you as I said to her, who are we to decide who is peaceful? Are we even fighting the right enemy?”

Luminara now stood before Barriss, who couldn't help but drop her sabre, slowly beginning to embrace her as she did

“Only the Force can decide peace. And bring balance through us, it will. Not us bringing balance to the Force”

“I have too much to think right now. Ahsoka better be safe. Or it’s on you, Master”

The two embraced each other

\---

_Meanwhile_

Opening the side doors of the LAAT in the vacuum of space was risky, but risk was the least of the concern of the 501st

Having successfully disembarked and taking down a turbolaser tower, the clone troopers set to work, cutting through the outer hull of the light cruiser. It was quick, their equipment was reliable, and in seconds, the hole was cut, causing a circular piece of metal to burst out with the escaping air. Fives then proceeded to throw a concussion drone into the hole, which exploded a second later inside

Just as they were about to jump in, they were briefly distracted by the sudden emergence of a dogfight above them, as their LAAT was fired upon by the dreaded Fanblade Fighter. The gunship took hits to her upper structure, and returned fire upon the Fanblade, which took minimal damage. The clones knew they'd be next to be strafed, and were quick to climb down into the depressurising deck. There were several B1 and B2 battle droids still reeling from the blast of the 'nade, and the troopers dispatched them with ease. Once the last of the boarding party was in, some of them severed the magnetic legs of the destroyed droids, letting their bodies be sucked to the hole in the hull. The pile-up of droid bodies quickly became a seal, allowing the clone troopers to stand normally without rushing air all around them

“Alright, I'll need two platoons on me. Fives, you take three troopers and hit their systems. I want the doors to the bridge disabled when we reach there”

“Roger that”

“Let's move, troopers!”

\---

The LAAT pilot was being pushed to his breaking point. That blood streak tailing behind him refused to let up, firing dual streams of laser shots at his vessel. The two orb gunners were having little effect on the Fanblade's powerful deflector shields, even with their otherwise deadly air-to-ground cannons

From their side, the 212th forced their way into the undamaged cargo bay, although it was easier than expected. They could see the 501st gunship being pursued hard, and the 212th pilot and gunners knew what they had to do next

Once the 212th troopers disembarked, the gunship flew off. Captain Gregor rallied his men for a final quick briefing, but before he could finish, his holoprojector lit up

“Captain Gregor! This is General Kenobi. We have reasons to suspect Luminara is not on board the ship, and neither are General Gallia or Commander Tano. We need you to search the ship very thoroughly to verify that!”

“Roger that, General. Clones! You heard the man, let's go!”

“Yes sir!”

\---

“You tug on the restraints, you get zapped. You stand too near to the door, you get zapped. You do literally anything we don't like, zap. Get the picture?”

Adi wordlessly nodded. Illayed pushed her into a holding cell, and the ray shields in the doorway was activated, trapping her and muddying her connection to the Force. Her arms were still tightly bound with the cables from earlier, and Luminara knew exactly what she was doing. Her elbows were forced into right angles and her lower arms were bound in parallel behind her back, along with ropes around her chest that pinned her upper arms to her sides. She couldn’t move any parts of her arms at all, but that was hardly a problem for a Jedi like her

The problem was the shock collar. While boarding the _Piro_ as it docked with the cruiser, they had put it on her neck. The security chief took the liberty of testing the device out and watching her scream, until Luminara slapped the controller out of her hands and threatened to throw her out of the airlock

“What’s the point of torturing a cooperative prisoner?” Luminara asked, deciding not to mention the other reason

Adi sat herself down on the chair in the holding cell, the only piece of furniture inside. She was getting herself comfortable when a familiar sight came before the door

“Master Gallia!” Barriss called from outside

“Hi Barriss. Nothing broken?”

“That dark warrior fought three of us at once. Sure glad nothing’s broken”

“I’m just happy you’re okay”

“Speak for yourself, Master. I know how uncomfortable that tie is, and don’t ask me how I know,” Barriss joked slightly, but her tone became serious next. “Know what else makes me uncomfortable?”

“Rara doing all this?”

“More like, what if she’s right? What if we are making the galaxy a worse place?”

“I’ve thought on that too. It’s okay to think about the other side every once in a while”

“But everything we’ve done, Master. Everything, even before the War started. We’ve done a lot for the people of the Republic. But what if we’ve…done it all wrong?”

“Barriss, I’ll tell you, first-hand from my fifteen years in the Council, I’ve thought of that too. Every day. We’ve made many decisions in the past that haunts us. Like letting Anakin be trained as a Jedi. Like gambling our odds on the Battle of Geonosis to end the war early, and look where that brought the whole Galaxy to. It troubles me, but what’s done is done. Let the Force guide us to make better choices in the future”

“Master took it a step too far, but what if her logic is right? That’s what haunts me. That everything we’ve done this past year has twisted by the Dark Side. And it twists us subtly, unlike how it twists her! Or Dooku for that matter”

“Meditate on it, Barriss. The Force will give you all the answers you need, as it gave me insight to her love for her people. Her family”

“Hopefully, before it’s too late for her”

“C’mon, Barriss, time to go,” Luminara came from behind. “And Adi, I’ll untie you once we’re feet on the ground. Which is like in five minutes”

“Is Stass safe?”

“Yes. Damn it, why does everyone ask me if their friends are safe?”


	19. Hijack

The 212th LAAT cleared the cargo bay, seeing a trio of V-19s coming to support them. As they emerged, the clone pilots could only watch in horror while the 501st LAAT was struck by both Ventress and the hostile cruiser’s close lasers, sending the gunship spiralling and then exploding

The clones would not let the death of their brothers go unanswered. They rallied up above the hijacked cruiser, while the Fanblade Fighter stood guard above its twin

Without warning, the Fanblade retreated and flew back into the cruiser’s cargo bay. It was obvious what she was up to

“Captain Rex, come in! This is Lieutenant Waxer of the 212th! Your LAAT is down and the Fanblade is returning back into the cruiser”

“Ah great, that dark warrior”

“Yes sir, you’ll be on your own. We cannot risk using the same approach as you to board the ship with her on board, unless you disable their close lasers. And obviously, we are not going to the cargo bays. Be quick! Their Vultures are still engaged on the _Resolute_ , but we can’t be sure for how long!”

“Roger that, Lieutenant. Troopers! When we hit the bridge and cut off their lasers, go for the self-destruct, and flee the ship on the 212th LAAT. Forget capturing the ship, this is our chance to take out the dark warrior by blowing her up”

“I read you too, Rex. Good luck,” Waxer ended the conversation, having been update of the changes. He then proceeded to relay the message to Gregor, who decided to pull the light cruiser away from its hostile counterpart

\---

The holoprojector on the deck of the _Resolute_ lit up to an image of a Mirialan naval officer

“This is Captain La’ha of the Mirialan Home Fleet. Mind telling us what your ship is doing in our backyard?”

“Admiral Yularen of the Republic Navy. We came here to retrieve our Jedi generals and begin negotiations for the rest of your prisoners”

“Really? Negotiations, Admiral? With a fucking Star Destroyer facing us? You seem to think we don’t know where this is taking us?”

“Captain, we have no intentions of escalating anything. We only came in because Luminara was bringing all the Jedi back into Mirialan space, and we were the only Republic vessel nearby to evacuate them”

“So it’s her fault then?”

Yularen had no immediate replies

“Here’s what is going to happen, Admiral. We know that if you wanted to truly begin negotiations, you’d help us by blowing those two Seppie cruisers up, not trying to board them. It’s obvious you’re trying to capture them to reverse engineer their tech. So if you want negotiations to begin, you can start by handing over their ships to us”

“For the sake of peace between our people, we will do so”

“I hope so too, Admiral. And hey, good luck”

The line was cut. Yularen simply turned around to see Anakin enter the bridge with a few questions of his own

\---

Captain Gregor and two troopers carefully walked into the hole that was the bridge door. The Jedi had done quite some damage in the ship, with all the broken droids around, the few remaining providing little resistance

“Captain! Beside the console!” Gregor turned to see Ahsoka sitting by a pole, her wrists bound and having fallen asleep, probably from exhaustion. The clones were quickly on her, looking out for traps and then freeing her

“Hey, Commander. Wake up, you okay?”

Ahsoka slowly stirred, seeing a familiar sight before her eyes

“Uh…hi?”

“You must have passed out. Nothing broken?”

“I…I killed that guy there…” Ahsoka pointed towards the lifeless body of the Separatist commander. Gregor realised she passed out from shock. The two troopers went over to Plarr’s lifeless body, searching him for any intel

“Relax, it’s over, it’s done. You did what you had to do, now let’s go home”

“Sure, I guess…”

While Gregor helped Ahsoka to her feet, the other troopers began to verify with the rest of the strike team that the ship was secured. It was then when Admiral Yularen came onto Gregor’s holoprojector comms

“Captain Gregor”

“Admiral”

“We have an update to your assignment. You are to hand the vessel over to the Mirialans once you have secured it”

“Admiral, we have secured the ship already. But why are we giving it up to them? We…”

“Captain, just know that it is necessary for the peace treaty. That’s all”

“We just lost several men to the enemy! We can’t just end the fight like that!”

“To the Separatists, not the Mirialans! We do not need to escalate anything with the owners of this space”

“Fine, sir. But has the 501st told you about their current situation yet?”

“Yes, they have. But it’s too risky to send any Jedi back there to assist them now. Only maybe during the evacuations”

“Yes sir. We will return with this cruiser then. Her shields are pretty low already”

“Very well then, Captain”

\---

The 501st were stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they had to move swiftly before Ventress could catch up to them, but on the other, they could not simply rush towards the bridge – not with the ship crawling with droids and turrets

Storming onto the bridge level corridor, the clones faced down numerous droidekas and B2 battle droids. They had been preparing well for the clones, removing as many items that the clones could use as cover. Nonetheless, several troopers at the front deployed portable ray shields to cover their front, lobbing ion grenades at the droids to force them to backpedal, making them easy pickings for the clones’ blasters. Several droids were too slow each time, and the clones began to wear them down, along with the stationary and hapless wall turrets

“Captain!” Fives called over the comms, having reached some of the power management systems at the cost of two men. “I’m trying to isolate their bridge protections! I can cut power to their turrets and ray shields from here, but the actual door is fail-secure. It won’t open with a power loss”

“Roger that, Fives. Do you have any updates on the dark warrior?”

“Last saw her entering the turbolifts fifteen seconds ago. She must be headed to your level, estimate one minute”

“Roger that! Out!” Rex knew they were racing against time. “Troopers! You heard the men! Double up and hit that door!”

“Sir, yes sir!”

As they spoke, the last few wall turrets were shut down, removing the droid’s overhead fire that was slowing the clones. Knowing that the clones would quickly overwhelm them, the droids opted to rush at the clones, calculating it as a better option. The clones with the shields saw the charge of B2s and droidekas, and braced themselves

Through the back and forth of blue and red plasma bolts, the two sides collided with each other. The shield clones were forced out of formation by the impact, and the droidekas began to deploy themselves at point blank range, trying to fire at any gaps they could find. One of the shots knocked the blaster rifle out of a clone trooper’s hands. He proceeded to throw himself at a nearby B2, slugging it hard with his fist as he did, and pushing its wrist cannon away. Another B2 behind it opened fire on him, shooting both of them down

Rex felt the pain, seeing yet another brother going down, but his consciousness was entirely focused forward. He swung the DC-17 blaster pistol on his right hand to shoot that droid down, while his left pistol continued to open more suppressive fire on the droidekas, their shields beginning to be stressed out

Thinking fast, Fives activated one of the corridor ray shields. It collided with two of the droidekas’ own ray shields, toppling them over and overloading their shields. As they struggled on their sides, they shot at several droidekas, confusing their target response software. They began to turn around and shoot wildly, allowing the clones to blast down their shields and subsequently destroy them in seconds. The remaining B2 droids provided little resistance without the support of the droidekas and turrets, and were then mowed down equally fast

Rex counted the losses: two troopers, not including Fives’ men. He could not stop to mourn, only continue to their target, while the breachers set up their cutters and began to burn through the door

They had to be swift, Ventress was nearly at their level, but the cutters were swift as they got

As the hole in the door fell in, the clones stepped back, correctly anticipating the storm of red plasma bolts that were shot at the hole from the other side. Several ion drone grenades were sent back in response, and the sounds of loud cracking could be heard, along with the silencing of weapons. Rex and a shield trooper were first in, with the captain sending shots into the bridge as he went through. Several clones went in next, laying suppressive fire with the larger DC-15A blaster rifles and direct fire with the DC-15 carbines. Within seconds, the bridge was clear of droids. The living personnel attempted to pick up the dropped weapons, but the clones gave no quarter and gunned them down

“Captain!” A sudden shout came from the last clone to step through. “She’s here!”

That was the last thing he said, before Ventress force-pulled him through the hole

“Gary!”

“Shit! Seal the hole!”

The breachers were quick on their cutters, using their flames to weld the door back in place, as well as to the floor of the ship. The sound of the burning metal masked that of screams of terror and burning flesh from the outside, where Ventress cut the unlucky clone into pieces. She then sent a powerful force blast at the door, buckling it slightly, but the welding held up

Inside, the slicers quickly got to work, breaking into the ship’s software, while the breachers proceeded to start to cut a hole into the floor of the bridge. With the ray shields down, they could cut through any of the bridge surfaces, and necessary it indeed was, with Ventress blocking the only other exit

The sound of the door buckling further prompted the slicers and breachers to work faster. The remainder of the clones either prepared a defensive position around the breachers, or tried to collect any other intel

“Captain!” One of the slicers called out. “I’ve disabled their turbolasers! I’m working on reconfiguring their cargo bay shields to allow our LAATs in!”

“Very well. What is the status on the self-destruct?”

“About fifty percent through! I need more time!”

Almost on cue, a pair of red lightsabre blades stabbed through the door

“We don’t have that much time!”

The lightsabres began to cut their way through the door

“Fives!” Rex called over the comms. “We need you to bring down the ray shields on the bridge door!”

“Captain, is the dark warrior cutting through with lightsabres?”

“Of course she is! Bring it down, now!”

“It’s gonna be risky! There will be an explosion that could potentially knock her out, but it would also break open the door itself. If she stands her ground-”

“That’s a risk we’re willing to take! Just do it!”

“Yes sir!”

Rex and the rest of the troopers prepared. Seconds later, there was a huge explosion on the doorway


	20. Welcome to war. War is hell

_Meanwhile, on the other cruiser_

“Captain Gregor! Their turbolasers have stopped firing on us!”

“Ah, excellent. Prepare the LAAT for evacuation, and the starfighters to shoot down the Fanblade if it manages to exit”

“The Fanblade?” Ahsoka hoped it wasn’t who she thought it was. “You mean, that dark warrior?”

“Yes, Commander. But rest assured, we are more than capable of handling her”

“I doubt it, she can handle three Jedi at once. Let me go with the evacuation unit, in case she catches up to Rex’s men while they’re leaving”

“You’re going to protect us?”

“Yes. Yes, I am”

“We’re clones, we’re meant to be expendable”

“Not to me”

\---

The 501st breachers successfully cut through the floor of the bridge, revealing the deck below them. A pair of shield troopers went down first, followed by the breachers, and then other troops. The other clones began to aim their blasters at the dust that was around the door, awaiting confirmation that Ventress was down

“How much longer to the self-destruct?”

“30 seconds, sir!”

“Sir!” The clone monitoring the surveillance called. “She just stood up again!”

“Damn it! We don’t have 30 seconds!”

“Guys, just leave me! I’ll slow her down”

“You can’t handle her by yourself”

Two other shield troopers then stepped forward to stay behind with the slicer. Rex knew what was about to happen next, as the rest of the squad made their way down, with him as the last out. As he went down, he heard the sounds of blaster carbines opening fire, followed by one of the clones screaming in terror, no doubt getting ragdolled by Ventress

The less unlucky shield trooper had a hard time aiming, not with Ventress dragging his buddy before her and using him as a meat shield. Behind him, the slicer quickly pushed through with the last bit of decryption controlling the self-destruct

“Look at all of you just throwing away your lives!” Ventress began taunting. “You could know a life of freedom, a life without pain! But you happily choose to be slaves to the Republic! Just like those Jedi scum!”

“Better slaves to the side of justice, than be free and fighting for terrorists!”

“Justice? What justice has the Republic brought to the galaxy? Other than corruption and exploitation of the Outer Rim? Why do you think you’re in Mirial in the first place?”

“You’re full of shit, Seppie whore!”

“…to save them from us? No, you’re here to subjugate them!”

“As if the Seppies don’t do worse!”

“Predictable logic. I’m not gonna waste my time with you”

Ventress began to force choke the defiant shield trooper, while force pulling the other right into her left lightsabre, impaling him. Ironically, and unfortunately for her, they had stalled time just enough for the slicer to activate the self-destruct functions, before he shot out his computer and the control panels. She noticed that too late, even while she flung her right lightsabre at the slicer

He looked upon the red streak, and embraced his death

\---

“Fives! Xasey! This is Rex! We are making our way back to cargo bay two! Meet us there in two minutes!”

“Yes sir!” The pair acknowledged

Rex and the troopers made a run for the cargo bay through the stairwells, picking off a few straggling droids on their way there. Parallel to them, the two troopers did so too. Around them, the PA system warned that the ship would scutter itself in three minutes

Enough time to get them off the ship, but hopefully not enough for Ventress to escape

As planned, the 501st troopers ran into the cargo bay without the Fanblade Fighter. The 212th LAAT with Ahsoka and Gregor arrived, right on schedule, flying into the cargo bay, where the troopers were quick to board

Just as Fives and Xasey were about to board, the both of them suddenly dragged back. There were no prizes for guessing who did it\

“Fives! No!”

“Argh! Rex! Leave at once!”

Xasey was dragged right into Ventress’ blades

“Waxer! Go, now!”

“No! Stop!” Ahsoka screamed as she jumped out of the LAAT before anyone could stop her. Ventress did not notice her, only noticing as Fives resisted her Force pull as he approached her blades. He found his footing just as Ventress raised her blades to strike him down. Blocking her swings with his arm, he tried to go for a right hook at her, only for her to kick his knees in. As he collapsed over, she elbowed his back, sending him hitting the ground. She then raised her blades for the kill…and swung them down right into a green blade

“Nice try, baldy”

“Oh, you little motherfucker”

Ahsoka grabbed Fives with the Force and threw him back into the LAAT

“You’ll win me in a duel, that’s for sure. So go ahead and kill me”

The clones watched in shock. The young and fresh-faced Ahsoka was willing to sacrifice herself to stall Ventress, even while the timer counted down to thirty seconds

Ventress heard the timer. She looked at the little Togrutan. She weighed her options

“I’m not that stupid, kid. I’ll see you again,” Ventress called as she Force pushed Ahsoka away from the LAAT, while she took off at inhuman speed towards the other cargo bay

“We gotta go now!” Waxer shouted

“Just go, she’ll catch up!” Rex replied as he saw Ahsoka get back to her feet and Force dashed towards the LAAT, as it began to pull out from the cargo bay. Its side doors started to shut, and Ahsoka let the Force find her strength as she made a leap into the shrinking opening

\---

“All fighters, this is Waxer. We have all personnel on board! Get ready to fire on the other cargo bay! Remember to keep your distance!”

“Yes sir!”

In the LAAT, the impact of Ahsoka leaping in knocked Rex over, only for the rest of the clones to start cheering

“Commander, you’re one crazy gal, you know that, eh?”

“Commander, that was damn brave of you”

“Commander,” Fives started as he found his breath again. “Thanks for saving me”

Ahsoka paused for a while, before she simply replied with: “So this is what it’s like to lose your comrades”

“Welcome to war, Commander. War is hell”

Outside, even as the LAAT was rushing away, the V-19s began to shoot at the cargo bay while the Fanblade started up its engines, hitting its unshielded structure repeatedly. That simply prompted Ventress to jump to hyperspace from inside the cargo bay, damaging her sublight engines as it did so

She set a course on her battered ship back to Separatist space. She knew she was in for a earful from Dooku

Meanwhile, the V-19s and the LAAT flew away, and they all watched as the light cruiser explode like fireworks. Rex was hardly in a mood to celebrate, however. The decision to abort the ship capture, and then Ventress’ escape, simply meant he lost eight men and three LAAT crewmen for nothing

They headed back to the _Resolute_ , watching the last couple of Vultures go down

\---

“Admiral Yularen,” Captain La’ha came live on the bridge holoprojector. “I’m impressed. Taking out a Separatist cruiser from the inside, without your fancy turbolasers, and capturing the other. I speak to you as one naval officer to another, that was very well done”

“Certainly, Captain. And we will deliver the cruiser to you as promised”

“Good. Just keep your Star Destroyer at least a million klicks away from our planets”


	21. Ceasefire

_Three days later_

The meeting was held inside a restaurant, on the top floor of the same hotel that Adi and Stass had arrived at seven days ago. Present at the meeting included Governor Ferrousia, Luminara, the MDF’s fleet admiral and some Vaylaani observers, as well as Senator Padmé Amidala (the Mirialans figured out who had helped the Jedi get in), Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu and several Coruscanti politicians

There wasn’t much to negotiate, and the terms were clear. Padmé managed to avoid any conflict between Mirial and Naboo, while the politicians and Obi-Wan got the peace treaty rolling. Unfortunately, Chancellor Palpatine was still taking his time to decide on a formal apology to the Mirialans, and that meant only two-thirds of the terms could be fulfilled

With that settled on, Adi opted to stay behind, while Stass and Barriss were allowed to return back home. The two of them were brought to the Republic’s transport vessel in the same armoured landspeeder from the first day, where they quickly and wordlessly boarded the vessel

Around them, police droids formed a wall around the hotel, keeping an excited crowd of Mirialans away. Nonetheless, the sight of the Republic vessel leaving, the crowd exploded in jubilation and waved the flags of Rokkalia, Vaylaan and the UNM, watching what was effectively victory over the Republic

From the windows of the restaurant, Ferrousia stared down upon the crowd as it slowly dispersed, pondering to himself over the incidents of the past few days

“Hey Lanci, a quarter for your thoughts?”

“Nah, Luminara. Just thinking of how close we were to war. Because even if they had succeeded in their coup, what were they going to do next? You know as well as I do that the Capital District cannot control the United Nations. There was going to be a civil war, not the clean occupation that the Republic was hoping for. I really want to know the thought process that goes on in your friends’ heads”

“Probably them thinking that this is the best path for the Republic. On one hand, we want to control the war’s affairs, but on the other, we are so willing to pander to the Republic’s elites in peacetime. Urgh, and here I am, hoping that we could make a meaningful difference to the galaxy without having to be tied down to all these red tape”

“But what could the Jedi Order do to make a difference? You are just an order of no more than thirty thousand in a galaxy of a quadrillion!”

Luminara stared out the window, adjusting her headdress in the reflection

“We could start by being peacekeepers!”

\---

_Later that day_

“Adi! I’m home!”

“Hey Rara,” Adi replied from the couch, where she was lazing on, clad in a silk camisole and knickers. “I see everything went well for your people, eh?”

“Sure did. For now”

“How long can this peace last? I fear the Separatists might be back”

“Why though? I’m pretty sure they would just tell our politicians that the skirmish was an act by a rogue Separatist commander. You think the Separatists don’t know how to play around on the negotiation tables?”

“Let’s just hope you’re right”

Luminara changed out of her robes into a home clothes and went over to the couch, laying her head on Adi’s bare lap

“There’s just one thing that concerns me a lot, Rara”

“What, that the Chancellor might never get you out of here?”

“No. Not about that. It’s kinda about…”

A defending pause filled the room

“It’s about what Barriss said to me”

“Yes, I was eavesdropping on the both of you on the _Piro_. You have my word I’ll never turn to the Dark Side”

“It’s not about that. It’s about something I felt in her. It’s like she’s beginning to become impatient. You probably awoke something in her, something…something dark…”

“I’ll admit I briefly flew off the handle at her and accused her of being a race traitor. I shouldn’t have said that, especially when she was desperate at that moment to find Ahsoka”

“Good job, Luminara. A pity you can never return to Republic space to undo the damage you did to her”

“I don’t have to; I could ping her for a talk. It’s just that you are probably right, and maybe that damage is irreparable”

“You sound like you aren’t even gonna try”

“Oh I will. If she will listen to me now”

The two of them fell silent again. Adi simply bent down while picking up Luminara up by the nape of her neck, and the two kissed again. Slowly, Luminara began to reach up for Adi's camisole and began to pull them off her shoulders...

Neither in their current state would be prepared for the next half decade of events that were to take place

\---

“Barriss?” Ahsoka asked with great concern as her friend stepped onto the shuttle bay of the _Resolute_. “Did Luminara hurt you?”

“Yes”

“We’ll stop her eventually. Together,” Ahsoka began to roll Barriss’ sleeves up, trying to check for any injuries

“She didn’t whack me. She hurt my heart…and you’re right”

“Right about what?”

“I’m too attached to her. I looked up to her all these years, and she hid her doubts and failings all for my sake. We’re too attached to each other, in fact”

Ahsoka looked upon Barriss, and she was certain that she meant between her and her master, not between her and her friend. Yet for some reason, she couldn’t precisely sense what Barriss meant by that

Was Barriss trying to block her out? Was she hiding something? Her thoughts continued to trail off as she parted ways with Barriss, who followed Stass to the sickbays, while she headed for the bridge turbolifts…

\---

“Ahsoka! Good timing. We’re going to be headed to the Bith system for a protection mission,” Anakin chirped as she came onto the bridge

“Ah, finally some rest, Skyguy”

“Oh come on, whoever told you peacekeeping is any less stressful?”

“Ha. Say, is Master Plo available? Just wanted to have a chat with him”

“I don’t know about that, last I heard, he was hunting down this new Separatist mystery weapon. Maybe, just maybe, he could find time for a chat”

\---

_Four days later_

“Koh-to-ya, Master Plo,” Ahsoka called out to the holoprojection of Plo Koon

“Koh-to-ya, little Soka,” Plo Koon replied, his voice clearly sounding more concerned than normal. “Sorry I couldn’t receive your pings this past few days, I’ve been busy, but it has paid off”

“That mystery weapon?” Anakin queried. “How's the hunt going?”

“We've tracked it to the Abregado system. We need reinforcements”

“I'll have to ask the Council, Master Plo. I was given strict orders to protect Bith,” Anakin replied

Suddenly, the holoprojection of Plo Koon began to become distorted and fuzzy. Sounds of cracks and pops were heard. The signature hallmark of jamming

“Master Plo, what's happening? What is wrong with the transmission?” Ahsoka was concerned

“I…what’s g…Gene…mming!”

The holoprojection went dead

“General Plo? Shit…” Yularen stared into the empty holoprojector

“You heard Master Plo, He needs our support. We have to go help him,” Ahsoka insisted

**Fin**

**Author's Note:**

> [spoilers]  
> The references are:
> 
> I don't think I need to explain "CIS scum", "Let's get this bread", “I do. And I’m tired of pretending it’s not” and "Hey, you're finally awake"
> 
> Stass' swearing was taken from a line in Hell's Kitchen S8E3
> 
> Hidden razors was inspired by the Young Bond novel "By Royal Command", where James used them to save the Eton Church
> 
> "Floating droid hotel" is a reference to the Japanese battleship Yamato, or at least what many IJN commanders called it
> 
> Luminara being forced to listen to her people talking about hurting Adi and Stass is in reference to "The Raid Redemption", where Rama had to listen to the rest of the Jakarta SWAT boasting about killing Andi
> 
> Barriss using canned food and a microwave oven is a well known cooking meme
> 
> “Yes, me. Me, me, me-” is from The Matrix Reloaded
> 
> Sneaking through maintenance passages is taken from Jedi: Fallen Order
> 
> “Wake up…WAKE UP!” is taken from COD: Black Ops
> 
> Ventress explaining Separatist torture is pretty much how Bryan Mills taunts Marco in Taken
> 
> The description of Luminara's pain in the nasty part of the electrostaff torture is borrowed from The Goblet of Fire
> 
> "A feeling" is er...you know where it comes from
> 
> “So, you’ve come here to lose to me again?” is taken from The Dark Knight Rises, just before Bane and the Batman duel again
> 
> The droidekas shooting the lift to "rip and tear" is from the Doom series
> 
> “But you are so! Wrong!” is borrowed from Casino Royale (2006 film), where Le Chiffre tries desperately to taunt Bond one last time
> 
> The MHF proximity autocannons are inspired by the CIWS Vulcan cannon and the GAU-8/A
> 
> "You get zapped" is borrowed from Captain America: Civil War
> 
> I obviously had to include the clone who punched a droid from the original TCW movie
> 
> The clone trooper nicknamed Gary is a reference to Robot Chicken
> 
> Ahsoka saves Fives the same way she saves Rex in the series


End file.
